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MISCELLANEA HOMERICA, 



&C. &C, 



SHORTLY TO BE PUBLISHED. 



ON THE SAME PLAN, AND BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 



PROLEGOMENA TO DEMOSTHENES 



AND 



NOTES 



ON THE 



TEXT OF THE ORATIONS WHICH FORM THE SUBJECTS OF 
EXAMINATIONS IN TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 



MISCELLANEA HOMERICA; 



BEING A COMPILATION OF 



ORIGINAL AND SELECTED ARTICLES 



ON THOSE POINTS OF 



GREEK LITERATURE 



WHICH ARE AUXILIARY AND NECESSARY TO 



'< HE CRITICAL STUDY OF HOMER. 



BY 



HENRY OWGAN, A. B., 

EX-SCHOLAR, AND CLASSICAL MODERATOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 



'OXwc oe KctXa v6[ii& v-ipij Kai dXrjOiva, ra dtairaprb^ apkoKOvra Kai 
iraaiv. — Longinus, tt. w^.7. 






5 ] 



DUBLIN: & 
WILLIAM CURRY, JUN. & COMPANY, 

9, UPPER SACKVILLE-STREET. 
M.DCCC.XL. 






DUBLIN : 
PRINTED liV R,. CBAISBERnV. 



TO THE 



REV. GEORGE SIDNEY SMITH, D.D 



PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL GREEK, T.C.D. 



Dear Sir, 

Homer remarks, that every man is 
best qualified to appreciate those faculties and 
qualifications which he himself possesses ; for this 
reason, it is, that I take the liberty of making you 
the Maecenas of these pages. Should the obser- 
vations contained therein prove worthy of your 
acceptance and patronage, adequate to the impor- 
tance of the subject, and useful to the Undergradu- 
ates of the College to which we belong, no more 
sincere gratification, or more acceptable recompense 
could return to 

Your's very truly, 

HENRY OWGAN. 

30, College. 



PREFACE 



In the laborious and unrequited occupation of 
teaching the Greek and Latin languages, I have 
had frequent occasion to observe with regret, that 
while the Greek Theatre, the Miscellanea Graeca 
Dramatica, Miscellanea Virgiliana, the Horatius 
Restitutus, &c, all excellent on their respective 
subjects, tend to alleviate the labour of the student 
in acquiring an acquaintance with the other classics, 
the votary of the creator of epic poetry was un- 
aided by any similar panoramic aggregate of col- 
lateral information, of which an almost unlimited 
quantity is, at present, indispensable, for the at- 
tainment of those distinctions awarded by our 
University to a proficiency in the most attractive of 
all literary pursuits, to the study of which we are 
invited by an inducement more powerful than even 
that constituted by the unintermitted alternations 
of colossal grandeur, majestic sublimity, and beauty 
the most minutely symmetrical ; that inducement 



Vlll PREFACE. 



is, that it is only by a critical and idiomatic ac- 
quaintance with these languages, the most perfect 
offspring of human intellect, that we are enabled 
to study without impediment, and to understand 
without obscurity, the writings which embody 
the history and precepts of our heaven-descended 
religion. To the earliest of these, the nearest in 
the aera of their production, and the most cognate 
in ethical tendency and manners of their age, are 
the poems of Homer. 

In addition to this reply to the frequent inquiry, 
suggested by prejudice or its parent ignorance, 
after the "utility of classical learning," it has been 
as frequently demonstrated, that to enumerate 
briefly a few of the secondary advantages derivable 
from the possession of these treasures of antiquity, 
is to repeat, that whatever profit results from ex- 
panding and strengthening the intellect, and 
forming a correct taste, is to be expected from this 
study ; that the relics of Roman and Grecian lite- 
rature contain the choicest fruits of human genius ; 
that the poets, the orators, and the philosophers of 
Greece, have, in their respective departments, 
brought home, and laid at our feet, the richest tro- 
phies which ever had been the meed of successful 
imagination; that the historians of these early 



PREFACE. IX 

times hold up to us a view of things "nobly 
done and worthily spoken ;" that the genius and 
inspiration which breathed them, live, and will 
live, unimpaired and undecaying in the writings 
which remain to us ; and that as long as taste, 
genius, and learning shall he valued among men, 
so long shall these precious relics be held more 
dear and more sacred, as they become more an- 
cient. 

Much or all of the apathy, which, though gra- 
dually disappearing, still prevails with respect to 
these pursuits, is mainly attributable to an utilita- 
rian spirit, which inconsistently requires, in the 
matter of education, an absence of that ornament, 
which it would not be content, in other particulars, 
to dispense with. The love of decoration is one 
of the most prevalent and irrepressible instincts of 
our nature : by it we are led to perceive, and be 
struck with the beauty of external objects, before 
the consideration of their utility suggests itself to 
us ; it is one of the first, few, and strongest im- 
pulses of the infant in years and the infant in 
civilization, the child and the savage ; and, though 
its tendencies may become higher, and its objects 
more noble, with the progress of years and refine- 
ment, it is still but the same love of decoration, 



X PREFACE. 

the same graceful failing of human vanity which 
acquires vigor as its moves. 

In our garments, our habitations, and the most 
common-place appliances of our daily life, mere 
utility, not admitting of a separation from orna- 
ment, draws it around us in infinite shapes : to it 
we are indebted for the existence of that art, which 
perpetuates the features of the mighty dead, and 
makes their virtue and genius to speak to us from 
the inanimate walls and the consecrated canvass ; 
of that which " graves its dream of loveliness on 
stone," and presents to us, in all but breathing 
and moving life and substance, its creations of 
ideal majesty and beauty ; and of that which has 
taught man to bestow upon the structures of his 
own hands, the unfading beauty and the enduring- 
strength and grandeur which have made them ha- 
bitations worthy of the presence of a God. In all 
that is ours, it is present, from ourselves shall it be 
absent ? Shall we, created by a nature, all whose 
works are poetry, walk abroad through a world of 
grace and symmetry, and shall our own minds, the 
divine portion of our being, remain the only un- 
sightly and unadorned thing, with no fair propor- 
tions in which to present itself? That divine 
portion requires that the domicile, which it con- 



PREFACE. XI 



descends to inhabit, should, itself included, be 
treated as something better than a patent digester, 
and be animated by something more than a Gal- 
vanic vitality. Many fantastic tricks has man 
played in his time : he has fancied himself many 
things, even an animated structure of glass; but 
he has in these latter days outfancied all these fan- 
cyings in imagining himself a dead iron balance, 
or a peripatetic multiplication table. 

Having gone thus far in defence of my subject, 
I shall leave my treatment thereof at the mercy 
of my readers and reviewers (i quibus hsec, sint 
qualiacunque, arridere velim," and briefly acknow- 
ledge my obligations to Messrs. Knight, Heyne, 
Wolfe, Wachsmuth, Barker, Clinton, Thiersch, 
Dawes, Mitford, Drs. Buttmann and Kennedy, Sir 
W. Drummond, Sir E. L. Bulwer, &c., from whose 
valuable works or observations this work has been 
partly compiled. 

H. O. 

30, College. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Chapter I. — Chronology of Homer and History of his 
Works. — Pseudo-Herodotus. — Herodotus. — Parian Mar- 
bles.— Mr. Clinton, Apollodorus, Eratosthenes, and Aristo- 
tle. — Bode. — Descent of the Heracleidae, Ionic Migration, 
Lycurgus. — Thiersch. — Solon, — Historical Authority of 
Homer. — 'Aoidol. — Unity of Homer. — Xwpi&vreg. — Wolf, 
Heyne, Knight. — Art of Writing, Phoenicians, Josephus. — 
Plutarch.— Heraclides Pont— Papyrus, dupOkpcu. — Priority 
of Poetry to Prose. — Library of Pisistratus. — Library of 
Polycrates. — Archilochus. — iElian. — 'Pa-^doi. — Homeridae. 
— Strabo, Harpocration, Suidas, Montbel, Hesychius. — 
Longinus. — Musical Contests.— Cleisthenes.— Isocrates. — 
Plato. — Xenophon. — Hipparchus, Recitation of Homer. — 
Pisistratus. — AiaaKevatTrdi. — AiopOiaral. — AiopOwosig k<xt' av- 
8pa, and Kara 7ro\«c.— Ptolemy Philadelphus. — Minor 
Poems attributed to Homer. — Ionic Migration.— Three 
Classes of Ante- Attic Poetry. — Post-Homeric Poets, . I sq, 

Chapter II.— Mr. Bryant's Hypothesis.— Earliest authentic 
Records.— Ages of Helen and the Grecian Chiefs. — 
Number of Troops. — Winter Campaigns.— Duration of 
Ships. — Grecian Rampart. — Idaean Rivers.— Site of Troy, 
New Ilium. — Callicolone, Tomb of llus, &c, — Homer an 
^Egyptian.— Clemens Alex.— ^Egyptian Priestess.— Egyp- 
tian Troy. — ^Ethiopians.— Writers on the Trojan War.— 
.Eneas in Asia.— Names of Deities.— Mycenae. — Aristotle 
and Zeno.— Melasigenes.— Melas.— Homer an Ithacan. — 
Homer blind, . . .17 

Chapter III.— Refutation of Mr. Bryant's Hypothesis, 
contains the same arrangement of subjects as the preceding 
Chapter, 25 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Chapter IV.— Controversy of the x U) 9 l ^ VTi ^'— Heyne on 
the Shield of Achilles. — Works of Art among the Asiatics, 
Greeks, Phoenicians, Babylonians, &c. — Dedication of 
vases by Gyges. — By Midas.— Chair of Apollo at Amyelae. 
— Shield of Minerva.— Of Agamemnon. — Mysteries of Or- 
pheus.— Panathensea. — The Oceanus.— Dionysius Hal. — 
D'Hancarville.— Virgil's Shield of iEneas.— Episode in 
II. <r — in £. — Celestial Mechanics.— Homer's vek ma.— Car- 
mina Heracleia. — Episode in II. y. — II. e . — Episode in II. rj. 
— II. k. and X. not separate poems. — II. o. — SopOuxnig. — 
Celtic Epic on the Trojan War. — Theory of Koliades —of 
M. Le Chevalier— Mr. Milman and Mr. Knight— Maci- 
ucca— Barnes— of Herodotus— of Vico. — Three Theories. 
— Literary and Political Effects of the Homeric Poems. — 
Anomalies between Iliad and Odyssey. — Mythology, Archi- 
tecture, &c. — Ossian's Poems. — Homer an Ionian, Mr. 
Knight.— Heraclidee, 35 

Chapter V.— Shield of Achilles. — The Wain.— Arctic Cir- 
cle, Draco, Ursa Minor, &c. — ^Egyptian Astronomic Di- 
agram. — Polar Star 4000 years ago ; 3000 years ago ; 2450 
years ago. — Thales.— Place of the Pole at the Trojan aera, — 
^Egyptian Year. — Twelve Pictures, signification of, . . 54 

Chapter VI.— Plain of Troy.— Plain of Mendere.— Simois 
and Scamander. — The Dombrik, the Kirke-joss, the Kimair, 
&c— Strabo, Herodotus, M. Le Chevalier. — Bournabashi. — 
Rhetaeum, Sigeum, New Ilium, the Thymbrius, &c. — The 
Grecian Camp.— Koum-kale.— Kalifat-osmak. — The Trojan 
Camp. — Tomb of Ilus.— The Opuxifiog. — Troy, its distance 
from the Sea.— Issarlik.— Dr. Clarke, Major Rennel, &c. — 
Map, 58 

Chapter VII.— New Homeric Theory.— Sanscritan Lan- 
guage.— Religion of Brama. — Buddism.— Pelasgi.— He- 
truscans. — When Homer wrote. — ^Egyptians taught by 
the Indians. — Chinese Deities, 64 

Chapter VIII.— Salebrje Interpret ationum et Critics. — 
Iliad, a, fi, y, 8, e, £, ?/, 9, i, k, X, p, v, £, <r, r, v, <p, x, ^» <«>, . 66 
The Twenty-fourth Iliad, its continuity, &c. . . .92 

Chapter IX. — Salebrje Interpretationem et Critics.— 
Odyssey, Longinus. — Odyssey, a, j3, y, £, t, k, X, p, . . 93 

Chapter X. — Mythology of Homer. — Two Classes ol'My- 
thi. — Ante-Homeric Mythology. — Cosmogonise and Theo- 



CONTENTS. XV 

Pace. 
goniae. — Hesiod. — Heraclean Poems. — 'Hoiot. — Harpyies. 
— Ate. — Dodona, according to Strabo, Cleanthes, Zenodo- 
tus, Herodotus, the 7re\eiad£g t ^Egyptian Oracle at Thebse. 
— Selli. — Origin of the Name Dodona. — Its Destruction. — 
Olympus. — Introduction of Celestial Actors into the Plots 
of the Poems, — Phoenician Mythology. — Mosaic History. — 
Epic and Tragic Fa\e. — ^Egyptian Mythology, Danaus, 
Orpheus, Musdeus, Melampus, &c. — Worship of Idols. — 
Dedication of Robes. — Worship of the Sun. — Oracles. — 
Mysteries. — Worship of the Serpent. — Sir E. L. Bulwer. — 

Temples and Treasure-Houses, 107 

The Homeric Hades. — Oceanus. — Diodorus Sic, Eus- 
tathius, Plato, &c. — ^Ethiopians. — Cimmerians, Cymry, 
Cimbri. — Claudian. — Mela, Pliny, Strabo. — Islands in the 
Atlantic. ^-Tzetzes, Avernus. — Servius. — Antipodes. — 
Land in the Atlantic known to the Ancients, . . .124 
Chapter XI. — Heroic Age, State of Society. — Sir E. L. 
Bulwer.— Herodotus. — Patriarchal Society. — Nobility and 
lower Order, distinguished.— Citizens, Slaves, and Foreign- 
ers. — Penestae and Heilots, — Emigrants, &c. — Hospitality. 
— Sanctuaries. — Three classes of Nobles. — Castes. — Sacer- 
dotal Families, 129 

Government. — Pelasgi. — Hellenes. — Monarchies. — 
Succession. — Oligarchy. — Plebeians. — Expiation of Crimes 
by Exile. — Democratic tendency of the Odyssey. — Phaea- 
cians. — Pelasgi.— Leleges. — Caucones. — Dryopes. — Cari- 
ans. — Hellenes. — Early History. — Tradition. — First Prose 
Writers. — Cretan Constitution. — Kingdom of Argos. — 
Sicyon. — Corinth. — Southern Peninsula, .... 134 
Chapter XII. — Language of Homer. — Greek Alphabet. — 
Cadmus, Palamedes, &c. — Euclides.— Euripides. — Sopho- 
cles. — Coins of Thrace and Macedon. — Languages of the 
Ancient Latins, Etrurians, and Osci. — Language of Poetry 
and Prose. — JEolic, Doric, Ionic, Attic. — Loss of P. — In- 
scriptions.— ./Era of Pisistratus. — Heraclean Table. — Ruins 
of Peloponesus, Boeotia, and Phocis. — Silence of Homer 
about himself.— Advancement of Languages.— Differences 
between the Iliad and Odyssey. — Error of Thiersch and 
Buttmann.— Second Aorists. — Syllabic Quantity.— Effect of 
P.— Insertion and omission of Consonants.— Duplication 
of Consonants, Liquids.— Language of the Gods. — Syllabic 



XVI CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Augment. — Obsolete Inflexions. — Declensions. — Old Latin 
Declensions.— Iotacism. — Etrurian Alphabet. — First De- 
clension. — Paragogic <pi. — iEolic Termination. — Second 
Declension. — Third Declension, use of P in Declensions. — 
Heraclides on original forms of Participles. — Metrical Con- 
tractions and Elongations.' — Pronouns, Epic Declensions of, 
Accentuation of, &c. — Article in Homer, Mr. P. Knight. — 
Verbs, Personal Terminations of. — "Ei/u andswm. — Impera- 
tive Mood. — Participles. — Aorists. — Forms of Perfect. — 
Optative Mood.— Subjunctive Mood.— Homeric Syntax. — 
Reduplication. — Augment. — Buttmann's Canon. — Verbs in 
07cw. — Obsolete Inflexions. — Contractions. — Contracted 
Verbs. — Verbs in p. — Adverbs, 141 

Chapter XIII.— The Digamma.— Bentley, Dawes, Knight, 
Heyne, Spitzner, &c— Oriental Alphabets.— Dr. Marsh, 
Marius Victorinus. — Sigean Marbles. — Delian Inscriptions. 
— Greek 0, and Latin F. — Terentianus Maurus.— Dawes' 
Canons. — Initial p. — Effect of P on Quantity. — Emenda- 
tions ofTexts. — Etrurian Alphabet. — Thiersch. — Digamma- 
ted Words. — Hiatus.— P and W. — Breathings. — Tyrannion, 
Quinctilian, &c. — iEolic Dialect.' — Digamma in later Poets. 
—In Mediis Vocibus, 173 

Chapter XIV.— Glossary, . . . . . . . 188 

Chapter XV. — Dialects. — Migrations. — Blending of Dia- 
lects.— Literature of the Ionic, Attic, &c— How Pindar and 
Theocritus differ from Homer, and each other. — Ionic Greek, 
Augment. — Hippocrates and Herodotus. — Differences be- 
tween Homer and Herodotus. — Antimachus, Cyclian, Gno- 
mic, and other Poets. — Language of History, of Philosophy, 
&c— Attic Dialect, 222 

Chapter XVI. — Versification of Homer.— Caesurae, Species 
of Dactylic Lines.— Synapheia. — Irrational Times. — Arsis, 
Thesis, Catalexis, and Anacrusis. — Ictus. — Aspirate. — 
Diphthongs.— rDuplication of Consonants.— Accent.- Hia- 
tus.— Elision, Theory of Particles, and of Pronouns. — Para- 
ragogic v. — Crasis. — Aphaeresis.— Apocope.— Synizesis. — 
Compounds, 229 

Accentuation of the JEolic Dialect, .... 248 

Notes, 253 



MISCELLANEA HOMERICA, 

&c. &c. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 

As to the era at which Homer lived, we are perplexed 
by an uncertainty as difficult of removal as that which 
deranges the question of his birth-place. The autho- 
rities of moment vacilate between the eleventh, ninth, 
and eighth centuries before the Christian era. We 
meet one opinion which makes him a cotemporary 
with Lycurgus ; which date, according to Eratosthenes, 
would fall on about the 280th year after the capture 
of Troy. The author of an absurd biography of 
Homer, once attributed to Herodotus, fixes his birth at 
622 years before the European expedition of Xerxes, 
which would synchronize with 1112 b. c. Herodotus 
himself, in the second book of his history, cap. 53, 
places the era of Homer 400 years before his own 
time, that is, at 850 b. c. That he flourished about 907 
b. a, 302 years after the third fall of Troy, is the state- 
ment of the Parian (Arundel) Marbles(l). Mr. Clinton 
(Fasti Hellen.) says, " If the hypothesis that Homel- 
and Lycurgus were cotemporary, be correct, the 
earliest account of the age of Homer, sc. that of 

B 



2 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

Herodotus, who places him four centuries before his 
time, accords with the date assigned to Lycurgus: 
400 years before the a.Kfir\ of Herodotus, will place the 
ciKfiy] of Homer at 850, or 854, b. c. Apollodorus 
places him 100 years after the Ionic migration ; this 
date, which may be understood of the birth of Homer, 
Apollodorus naturally adapts to his own epochs, viz., 
1183 for the fall of Troy, and 1043 for the migration, 
which would place Homer at 943 b. c. ; but, when the 
date of the migration is brought down to its more pro- 
bable period, b. c. 988, and adapted to the reduced 
epoch, which we obtain from Callimachus ; this date 
of Apollodorus, for the birth of Homer, will agree 
with the statement of Herodotus. If the date of 
Eratosthenes, or Aristotle, be assumed, Homer will be 
placed farther off than any possible era of Lycurgus." 
And again, " From the testimonies to the age of 
Homer, already given, we collect three principal opi- 
nions ; of which the first supposed him to flourish 
about 785 b. c. The second, adopted by Aristotle, 
would place him about the time of the Ionic migration, 
and then his a/c/zr? would extend from 170 to 200 years 
after the fall of Troy; the third, which is that of 
Apollodorus, makes him 100 years later, and, accord- 
ing to this, his birth will fall at 240, and his qk/dj at 
from 270 to 300 years after the Trojan era; this com- 
putation coincides with Herodotus, who places him 
and Hesiod together at 400 years before his own 
time." Mr. Clinton prefers the date of Aristotle for 
Homer, and that of Herodotus for Hesiod, and ar- 
ranges them thus: — Homer flourished at 962 to 927 
b. a, and Hesiod 859 to 824. Homer himself ac- 
knowledges, (II. /3. 486,) that he has had no personal 
acquaintance with the facts, which form his subject, 
and that tradition alone has reached him. Bode 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 6 

(Commentatio tie Orph.) supposes him a native of 
Peloponnesus, and cotemporary with the Trojan war, 
and Gideon the Israelite ; and this opinion he grounds 
upon the absence of any allusion, in the Iliad or 
Odyssey, to the great invasion of Peloponnesus, by the 
Dorians, which occurred about 1100 b. c, and eighty 
years after the capture of Troy, which is fixed by 
Eratosthenes and Apollodorus at 1184 B.C., together 
with the following series, sc. from the capture of 
Troy to the descent of the Heraclidae, intervened 80 
years ; from that to the Ionic migration, 60 ; thence to 
Lycurgus, 159; and from him to the first Olympiad, 
(that of Choraebus,) 108: thus counting from the 
Trojan era to the first Olympiad, 407 years. Thiersch 
also supposes Homer to have been a resident in Pelo- 
ponnesus, previously to the expulsion of the Heraclidae, 
at a period not remote from the siege of Troy, and 
immediately subsequent to the return of the victorious 
Greeks : " For," he says, " had Homer existed later 
than the revolution which changed the face of the 
whole Grecian peninsula, he could not have omitted 
to make some allusion to it; he was yet unacquainted 
with the name Hellenes, as a common denomination of 
all the Greeks; calling them A chaei, Argei, Danai, &c. 
At the same time the greater number of traditional 
episodes inserted in his poems, are indigenous to Pelo- 
ponnesus ; it is this country which he honours with the 
nativity of some of his most accomplished heroes ; 
while the legends of Asiatic origin are comparatively 
few." In confirmation of this may be also adduced 
Homer's silence respecting the Amphictyonic Council, 
republican governments, and the worship of idols, as 
a general system, and in regular temples. If he was 
born, as these authors will have it, about or a little 
after the siege, and if, therefore, he or his auditors 



4 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

had known any of their elders who had been witnesses 
of, or actors in, the scenes recorded, could he have made 
any such assertion, as that the heroes of , that time 
could lift with ease from the earth rocks, which would 
require the efforts of several of the then generation. 
On the other hand we find, in the Iliad, such parti- 
cularity of detail in the arrangement of troops, the 
topography of encampments, &c, as naturally implies 
a fresh tradition, and recent reminiscences. The belief 
most prevalent to the end of the last century, assumed 
that he was an Asiatic Greek of Ionia, who flourished 
about the middle of the tenth century b. c, subse- 
quently to the planting of the Ionic colonies from 
Attica. In such uncertainty concerning his age and 
country, it is not surprising that we know little of his 
fortunes; he must evidently have travelled extensively 
in Greece, Phoenicia, Egypt, and their adjacent 
islands, on the internal evidence of the critical geo- 
graphical knowledge evinced in his works : no author 
is more exact in his topography, or local and national 
traditions . Strabo frequently leans upon his authority ; 
and when recounting the litigation between Athens 
and Megara concerning the possession of Salamis, 
relates that the Athenians adduced in support of 
their claim, the 558th line of II. j3., where the Athe- 
nians and Salaminians are classed together, (the au- 
thenticity of which line has been elsewhere ques- 
tioned, some authors having conjectured, that it was 
inserted for theoccasion by Solon ;) in answer to which 
the Megarians also adduced their quotation, reading, 
as follows, the same passage : 'Aiag §' f/c 'EaXa/uivog 
ay£ viae, ck re IIoAiYj^Tje, €K r AryHjooucrrjc, Niaairig te, 
TpLwodiLv re. This proves, that in the age of Solon, 
Homer was habitually appealed to as a weighty and 
unerring authority on questions of history. Admitting 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 



that he was blind, as Pausanias states, (1. 5, c. 33,) 
we cannot, however, grant that he was blind from his 
birth, or, in his delineations of many scenes, he could 
not have evinced so intimate an acquaintance with 
their details, (Tusc. 1. 5, c. 39.) He has been re- 
presented, now a schoolmaster, and blind, now a 
mendicant, compelled to seek his livelihood, as a wan- 
dering minstrel, (Paus. 1. 2, c. 33,) which is contrary 
to all transmitted to us of the ancient aotSoi, who, if 
not the possessors of wealth and influence, were at 
least respected and welcome guests, alike at the homes 
of the populace, and the palaces of the great. It may 
be, with all probability, assumed, that Homer was of 
this class, such as he has represented in the cha- 
racters of Phemius and Demodocus, (Od. 6. 254, sq.), 
and neither a mendicant, nor a schoolmaster. Of all 
these conjectures, we can determine the degree of 
credit which they deserve, only by a critical examina- 
tion of the Iliad and Odyssey; the questions which 
refer to Homer, personally, being intimately connected 
with those relating to his compositions. We have 
been early instructed in veneration of Homer, and of 
the beautiful unity which pervades his works; the 
habits of our education, and the traditions of our 
classical literature, have accustomed us to see, in the 
Iliad and Odyssey, but two vast and regular poems, 
executed with a perfection of art, and in accordance 
with all the laws of epopceia. If, then, we come to be 
informed, that there exist strong reasons to doubt that 
the one Homer ever existed ; that poems apparently so 
regular, and which have served as the model from 
which Aristotle has deduced his laws of poetry, did 
not primitively exist in the form in which we have 
them at present; that, far from having been projected 
with any unity of design, they were at first separate 



6 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

songs ; we are startled at the assertion, so contrary 
to our previously imbibed ideas. The advocates of 
this opinion, (styled, ab re, x^P^ovreg, of whom the 
earliest were MM. Hedelin and Perrault, followed 
by Wolf, and more zealously by Heyne, who carries 
the system so far as to deny the unity even of an indivi- 
dual book, asserting that Iliad \p comprises the work of 
several hands ; the audacity of which assumption is 
considered by Mr. Knight a parallel to that of attri- 
buting the uniformity of the creation to a fortuitous 
concurrence of atoms, affirm, not merely that the 
Iliad and Odyssey are not the work of the same 
author ; but even that each of these poems, considered 
separately, is a collection of fragmentary compositions, 
w r hich had remained, a considerable time, distinct, and 
of which it was at length determined to make one. 
According to them, this era, separating barbarism and 
civilization, could not have been the date of a single 
composition, of so vast and complicated a design as a 
regular epic : they appeal to the testimony of several 
inconsistencies and contradictions ; sc. Pylasmenes, the 
leader of the Paphlagonians, is slain in II. y, and is 
alive in II. v : the account of the family of Neleus 
in the Iliad differs from that found in the Odyssey : 
indications, too, of an improvement in various me- 
chanical arts appear in the latter poem : the elaborate 
workmanship on the shield of Achilles furnishes one 
of their strongest arguments, the particulars of which 
I shall elsewhere state more fully ; moreover, they 
say, every thing Homeric is spontaneous and natural, 
and exhibits no symptom of effort or premeditation ; 
all is the result of inspiration, not of labour, so 
long a work could not have been executed without the 
aid of writing, and all evidences tend to prove an igno- 
rance of this art in Homer's time. It is decisive, that 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 7 

in either poem no mention is made of the art of wri- 
ting, notwithstanding the numerous occasions, where, 
had it been known, the poet must have mentioned it ; 
but, neither he, nor Hesiod, anywhere make any allu- 
sion to writings, engravings, or coins. The passage, 
(II. £. 168, sq.) relating to Bellerophon, so frequently 
appealed to, in favour of the contrary, in reality 
proves nothing else than his ignorance of the art ; at 
least, that we are not to understand by writing, aught 
but the use of certain characters, not yet reduced to 
an alphabet. Their decision is the same on the pas- 
sage where the Greek chieftains draw lots to determine 
Hector's competitor. The testimony of Josephus, on 
this subject, is in their favour ; he says (against Apion, 
1, 2,) " It was also late, and with difficulty, that they 
came to know the letters they now use; for those, 
who would advance their use of letters, to the greatest 
antiquity, pretend, that they learned them from the 
Phoenicians and Cadmus ; yet is nobody able to de- 
monstrate that they have any writing preserved from 
that time, neither in their temples, nor in any other 
public monuments. This appears, because the time 
when those lived, who went to the Trojan war, so many 
years afterward, is in great doubt, and great inquiry 
is made, whether the Greeks used their letters at that 
time." It may be objected to this, that the testimony 
of Josephus is too modern to be received on a subject 
of so high antiquity, the refutation of Apion, quoted 
above, having been written about a. d. 100; but, they 
will observe in reply, that he does not adduce it as an 
opinion of his own, but as a generally known and 
acknowledged fact. Plutarch, in his life of Lycurgus, 
(that of Homer, attributed to him, is unquestionably 
spurious, as Pausanias seems to be aware of its ex- 
istence,) writes, that the legislator, in his travel 



8 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

through Asia Minor, discovered there the Iliad and 
Odyssey, and, in the ardour of his admiration, trans- 
cribed, and brought them to Lacedaemon. Whatever 
there can be of truth in the statement of Plutarch 
comes to this, that Lycurgus was the first to make the 
poems of Homer known in European Greece. And 
this is the amount of the statement of Heraclides 
Ponticus, a historian of the third century b. c, adding, 
that he received them from the representatives of 
Creophylus. The employment of writing for particular 
purposes, cannot, at the utmost, be dated more re- 
motely than eight centuries b. c, but at this period, 
its use must have been considerably circumscribed, 
considering the insufficiency of the materials, such as 
waxed linen, leaves of trees, lamina? of metal, and 
hides ; and it is probable that they had not begun to 
write pieces of any length, before, about the middle of 
the sixth century b. c, after the introduction of papy- 
rus from Egypt(2) ; the SiQOapai (skins of goats and 
sheep) rudely dressed being insufficient for the pur- 
pose, and disused from the time of Herodotus. No 
possibility can be assumed of two poems of such length 
having been engraved on laminae of lead, which, to 
admit of depth and durability of engraving, must have 
been thick and heavy. These poems, then, were not 
written, but sung. Memory alone, at that time, pre- 
served works of genius ; as the traditions, alluded to 
above, perpetuated the recollection of historical events ; 
hence the frequent invocation of the Muses, as the 
daughters of Memory, the sole repository of the past. 
Even a long time after Homer, song was the preserving 
and transmitting medium of all records, including 
laws, as the name vo/iog itself implies (Aristotle, Probl. 
9, 28.) On the other side of the question, the intro- 
duction of written characters altogether, or in part, is 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 9 

variously attributed to Prometheus, Danaus, Cadmus, 
Palamedes, Hermes, Cecrops, Linus, and Musaeus. 
A library was collected at Athens, by Pisistratus, con- 
taining all the Epic, Elegiac, Lyric, and Iambic com- 
positions in existence, including, of course, the Iliad 
and Odyssey ; at the same time, that a collection of 
the same nature was formed at Samos, by Polycrates. 
Poetry must, therefore, have been generally written, 
for a considerable time before this ; the existence in 
writing of the poems of Archilochus, nearly 200 years 
before this era, is admitted even by Mr. Wolf. And 
it is, therefore, far from probable, that those of Homer 
existed, till this time, only in the memories of rhap- 
sodists. In Homer, we find the aoiSoi a sort of living 
depository of the historic records, and mythic legends, 
of their time ; they play a conspicuous character in 
the society of the Heroic Age : Agamemnon, at his 
departure for Asia, entrusts Clytasmnestra to the care 
and protection of one of this class. The Trouba- 
dours of antiquity, they roamed through the several 
towns of European and Asiatic Greece, which latter 
enjoyed a political calm, while the former was shaken 
by revolutions ; of this tranquillity, together with 
riches, and civilization, the result was the formation of 
a school of poetry, whence issued vocal accompani- 
ments for religious and political solemnities. The 
eulogia, which Homer bestows on the aotdol, on all 
occasions, tend to confirm the belief, that he was of 
their number, and has represented himself under the 
name of Phemius, or Demodocus, a wandering pane- 
gyrist of gods and heroes. The testimony of i<£lian, 
on this subject, is positive. He says, " The ancients, 
at first, sung the poems of Homer in detached por- 
tions ; such as the aptartfa of Diomed; that of Aga- 
memnon ; the embassy of Achilles ; the funeral games, 

c 



10 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

&c. And, in the Odyssey, the escape from the Cyclops, 
the island of Calypso, &c." To the original poets suc- 
ceeded the pajjtedoi, or apvydoi, who lived by committing 
to memory, and reciting, at places of public resort, 
standard compositions: these constituted a second era 
in the history of Homeric poetry ; the earliest mention 
of their name is found in Herodotus, who was thirty 
years junior to Pindar, by whom they are called Home- 
ridse, (Nem. 2, 1.) "OOsv irzp kcl\ ^Ofiripidai, 'Fcltttwv 
Ztt£idv ra ir6XX > aoicol, " Apyovrai Aiog ek wpooijuis. With 
reference to the name, the scholiast on Pindar says, 
that the descendants of Homer himself, who recited 
his poems, by hereditary right, exclusively appro- 
priated this title, and are thus to be distinguished from 
the paipqSoi, who had no claim to the appellation. We 
are informed by Strabo, that the inhabitants of Chios 
endeavoured to substantiate their claim to the nativity 
of Homer, on the ground of the existence of Ho- 
meridse among them. Timaeus, a sophist, and author 
of a glossary on Plato, describes them as synonymous 
with pa-ip(i)So'i. Harpocration, the author of a diction- 
ary of the Ten Attic Orators, when remarking the 
occurrence of this word in Isocrates, (towards the end 
of the panegyric on Helen,) describes them as a family 
of Chios, the descendants of the poet, and adds, that 
Seleucus suggested a different etymology of the word 
(sc. ofxrjpog, a hostage). Suidas has merely transcribed 
these two. Montbel, in his History of Homeric Poetry, 
derives the word from o^uou up&v, on the authority of 
Hesychius, who thus explains it, ojuov iipfioaQai, kcu 
avp.(p{j)vuv : according to him then, those who sing in 
concert, in which sense, and applied to the Muses, it 
occurs in the Oeoyovia. According to the xcopiZovreg, 
bearing the form of a patronymic, it gave rise to a belief 
in the existence of a Homer. The strongest and 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 11 

clearest refutation of their doctrine is, that such of 
the ancients themselves as we have been able to form 
a literary acquaintance with, are believers in the ex- 
istence of one Homer, the individual author of the two 
great epics. The great difference of character be- 
tween the poems, the Iliad being the more dramatic, 
and the Odyssey the more narrative of the two, is at- 
tributed, as well as the other discrepancies, to the in- 
creased age of the poet, when engaged in the latter 
work, by Longinus, in his beautiful simile of the meri- 
dian sun, contrasted with the more softened and sub- 
dued splendor of the evening. These Homeridae ap- 
pear, on the whole, to have been a school, or sect, of 
a character similar to that of the Riiners of the North, 
the Druids of the Celts, the Bards of Germany, and 
Troubadours of Provence, who were, respectively, the 
appropriators of their national literature. As they 
spread through Greece, the most distinguished among 
them was Cynethus, a cotemporary of zEschylus : they 
occasionally took the liberty of adding and altering ; 
and Pindar, in the passage above quoted, attributes to 
them the practice of preluding their epic chaunts with 
a hymn. There appears a distinction between the 
Homeridae and paxpt^doi in this particular, that the 
former recited nothing but their own compositions, 
whereas the latter were indiscriminate in their selec- 
tions. This, subsequently, became a system of such 
notoriety, that musical contests were instituted at Si- 
cyon, Orchomenos, Argi, and Athens. Herodotus re- 
lates of Cleisthenes, a king of Sicyon, that, while en- 
gaged in hostilities against the Argives, he interdicted 
these recitations, the poems which supplied the mate- 
rials, containing the praises of the Argives. Isoerates, 
in a panegyric, attributes to the ancient Athenians the 
glory of having instituted a festival in which were re- 



\2 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

cited extracts from Homer. These rhapsodists, so 
necessary to society before the invention of writing, 
lost, on its discovery, their entire importance, and, 
as we find in Plato and Xenophon, became eventually 
objects of contempt ; and early in the fourth century 
b. c, were held to be mere itinerary buffoons. It has 
been, upon several occasions, asserted that the Iliad 
and Odyssey did not appear in any regularity or con- 
tinuity of form until the time of Socrates and Xeno- 
phon ; but, in the diologues of Socrates (Plato), Euthy- 
demus boasts of the possession of a copy of Homer. 
And in Xenophon's Banquet, Niceratus professes to 
repeat the Iliad and Odyssey from memory. Nume- 
rous testimonies concur in attributing to the era of 
Pisistratus the transcription and arrangement of Homer, 
the most ancient of which is that of Cicero, (de Oratore, 
3, 34.) Plato, who quotes some lines of Homer, which 
are not to be found in the present editions, states, 
that Hipparchus ordained the periodical recitation of 
Homer at the Athenaea, or, (as they were styled after 
their establishment, on an improved scale, by Theseus,) 
Panathenaea. Previously to this, however, (according 
to Diog. Laert), certain improvements had been ef- 
fected by Solon, in the manner of recitation ; and this 
measure naturally prepared the way for those of Pisis- 
tratus ; to which Elian, in the passage above named, 
alludes. Of two scholiasts, on Dionysius of Thrace, 
who both corroborate these statements, one adds an 
order of Pisistratus, that an obolus should be paid for 
every line of Homer rescued from oblivion ; and the 
second concludes his testimony with an anachronism, 
in making Zenodotus cotemporary with Pisistratus. 
The services of this monarch, in this particular, are 
testified by an inscription on his statue ; he reigned at 
Athens at three several intervals, from 561 to 528 B.C.; 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS. 13 

between these dates, therefore, must be fixed the time 
of the first transcription, in the present order, which, 
notwithstanding all the care bestowed on it, must have 
been deplorably imperfect, distorted, as it necessarily 
was, by ignorance of philological details, by national 
and individual prejudice, and other motives of a per- 
verting tendency ; but, after a brief interval, the earliest 
efforts of criticism were directed to the correction of 
their most glaring errors, in the arrangement and 
emendation of the text, which operations are expressed 
by the phrase SiaaiczvaZZiv. The frequent occurrence 
of the name ^laaKtvaarai, in Villoison's edition of the 
Venetian Scholia, shews that there was in active occu- 
pation such a body of literati ; and that the text of 
Homer had undergone extensive corrections and emen- 
dations, previously to the time of the Alexandrine 
SiopOurai. Of these, the principal were Zenodotus, 
whose emendations still appear in the Venetian School ; 
and to whom is sometimes attributed the division of the 
two poems into twenty-four books, each designated by 
the letters of the alphabet ; his uk/jit) is placed at about 
250 b. c. : Aristarchus, who flourished about the same 
time, and gave the most strenuous opposition to the 
system styled 7rpayfxaTiKrj, which, having been originated 
and supported by the Stoics of the day, consisted in 
explaining Homeric mythi as adumbrations of physical 
phenomena : Aristophanes, a native of Byzantium, the 
inventor of Greek accentuation, as designated by the 
marks in present use, about 200 b. c. : and Crates, who 
was the first to animate the Romans with the spirit of 
literary criticism. Before this time, there had been in 
existence, at Alexandria, several editions, or SiopQuaHQ, 
of Homer, of which there were two classes, the kcit 
av$pa, and the Kara 7toAhc ; supposed to be the terms 
of their classification in the library of Ptolemy Phila- 



14 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

delphus ; bearing also the names of those individuals, 
or communities, by whom they had been severally 
presented. Of the latter class, the most known were 
those copies which bore the names of Chios, Argi, 
Sinope, Cyprus, and Massilia ; and of the former, that 
styled £K rov vapOrjicog, being the copy emended by 
Aristotle himself, and kept in Alexander's celebrated 
casket. The object to which the labours of the 
SiopOujTai were principally directed, was the investi- 
gation of the correctness of these of the SicKJKzvaaTat, 
and accordingly, they erased unscrupulously whatever, 
in the copies left by them, appeared of questionable 
authenticity. The most zealous in this work of re- 
trenchment was Aristarchus, who, together with the 
others above mentioned, were the most remarkable of 
Ptolemy's seventy-two grammarians. In addition to the 
Iliad and Odyssey, twenty-one other poems, together 
with the hymns, are attributed to Homer. 1. The 
Batrachomyomachia (the war of the frogs and mice), 
usually assigned to Pigres, brother to Artemisia, 
the widow of Mausolus, and queen of Halicarnas- 
sus. Mr. Knight conceives more probability in sup- 
posing it to be the work of an ancient Attic writer, 
both from its having been inscribed on StXroi, not 
SicpOepai', and from containing the earliest mention of 
the crowing of the cock, as a matter of habitual occur- 
rence : this bird, coming originally from India, was 
called by the Greeks TrepcjUog opvig, and appears en- 
graved on the coins of the Samothracians, and Sicilians 
of Himera, in the sixth century b. c. 2. The 'Aycuv, 
sc. of Homer and Hesiod, generally presumed to be 
spurious. 3. The 'At£ l7rra7T£kToc, which, by being 
written in Iambics, conclusively refutes its claims to a 
place in this catalogue. 4. Apaxvofiayla) 5. repavo- 
fia\ia. 6. tyapo/jLaxia* The several subjects of which 



AND HISTORY OF HIS POEMS, 15 

are indicated by their names. 7. KipictoTrtg. On the 
subject of a species of cicadas. 8. The Margites, who 
7roXX' rjTriGTaTO ipya, KaKwc 8' ?'/7rtGTaro iravTa ; the first 
satyric poem, which constituted the model of the old 
comedy, as in the Iliad and Odyssey was contained the 
germ of Greek tragedy, and is quoted and eulogised 
by Aristotle, Plato, and Callimachus. 9. EirSakafiia. 

10. EmKiKXiSsr, i. e., " quorum prasmia turdi essent." 

1 1 . 'A/za£ovm. 12. Tvwtiai. Suspected of having pro- 
ceeded from the Pseudo-Herodotus. 13. 'Etpecndjvri. 
14. 'OixaXiag aXwaig. Supposed to have been com- 
posed by a comparatively recent poet named Creophy- 
lus. 15 and 16. 0??j3cu'c and Eirlyovoi. On the sub- 
ject of the two Theban wars, the first opening with 
the words "Apyog aude, Qea ; and the second with Nvv 
civt, oirXoripwv avdpiov, ap\ojjiiOa, Movcrca. Suspected 
by Herodotus. 17. Kv-n-pia "Enr}. A Cyclian Epic in 
ten books, comprising from the marriage of Peleus and 
Thetis to the first scenes of the Iliad(o). 18. "iXiag 
t\acr<T(i)v. Another of the same character, attributed 
to Lesches, a Lesbian, containing from the death of 
Achilles to the capture of Troy ; from this poem 
Quintus Smyrnaeus has borrowed. 19. JNoorot. 20. 
KvkXoq. A series of fables, in chronological order, 
from the My thus of Ccelus and Terra to the fall of 
Troy. 2\. QojKa'ug, or, perhaps, more properly <Paiaiag, 
a name probably applied to Z, H, and of the Odys- 
sey ; the former name would imply an anachronism ; 
Phocaea having been founded by exiles from Phocis, 
under the command of two Athenians, Philogenes and 
Damon, at the time of the general migration to the 
coast of Asia, and admitted into the Ionic confederacy, 
on receiving from Teos and Erythras, kings of the fa- 
mily of Codrus. The Ionic Migration, the era of which, 
according to the chronology of Eratosthenes and Apollo- 



16 CHRONOLOGY OF HOMER, 

dorus, confirmed by Philochorus and Aristarchus, is 
fixed at 140 years after the Trojan era, originated, ac- 
cording to Pausanias, in a quarrel between Medon and 
Nileus, the elder sons of Codrus, for his crown : on the 
adjudication of the object of this dispute by the Pythia 
to Medon, Nileus declared his intention of not conti- 
nuing a subject of his brother, who was lame in one 
foot; and, accordingly, accompanied by Androclesand 
other brothers, took the command of the emigrants to 
Asia, consisting of Attic and iEgialean lonians, Boeotians 
from Thebes, Minyae from Orchomenos, Pylians, Lo- 
crians, Abantes, Molossi, Dryopes, and Arcadian Pe- 
lasgi, leaving their native countries, where, from the 
descent of the Northerns, the population had over- 
flowed : these, on their arrival, partly subduing and 
partly incorporating with the native Lelegae and Cari- 
ans, at length founded twelve cities, of which the re- 
sidence of Nileus and Androclus, Miletus and Ephesus, 
were the principal. The hymns, which are also enu- 
merated, are conjectured to be a specimen of the pre- 
ludes alluded to above. This species of composition, 
under the name of v/nvoi or reXerai, forms the first of 
three classes into which the Ante-Attic poetry of 
Greece is divided ; its writers, who all preceded Ho- 
mer, were Olen, a Lycian, to whom is attributed a 
hymn to Eileithyia : Linus, of which name three are 
recorded, sc. a son of Psamathe and Apollo, whose era 
is placed ten generations before the Trojan war ; a son 
of Uraina ; and a son of Calliope and Apollo, the pre- 
ceptor of Achilles : the first and third of these are by 
some considered identical. Apollodorus calls Linus 
the brother of Orpheus, with whom Musaeus, who also 
belongs to this class, was cotemporary : of these three 
no works remain ; those usually attributed to them 
being all spurious, as the Hero and Leander, which is 



MR. BRYANTS HYPOTHESIS. 17 

the composition of a much more recent Musaeus. 
Pamphos was likewise a writer of hymns. Olympus was 
cotemporary with Orpheus, whose era is about the 
fourteenth century b. c. This poet is to be distin- 
guished from the Olympus who appeared about fifty 
years after the first Olympiad. A second Orpheus 
also flourished in the age of the Pisistratidae, one of 
the SiaGKzvaGTcii, in which occupation Simonides and 
Anacreon also took a part. The second class, called 
the Epic Cycle, the limits of which were defined by the 
Alexandrine grammarians, comprised a series, such as 
were consecutive, of the poems having for their sub- 
jects the exploits of Hercules and Theseus ; the Tro- 
jan and Theban wars ; the fortunes of the Grecian 
chiefs, after the Trojan war (vogtoi) ; with the histories 
of Ulysses and Telegonus, that is, the Odyssey, and 
its sequel the Telegonia. Of this series twenty-nine 
poems are enumerated. The third class consisted of 
the poems of Hesiod, with the epics not admitted into 
the cycle. Of the post-Homeric poets, those nearest 
to him, according to Mr. Clinton, are Hesiod, who 
flourished from 859 to 824 B.C.; Arctinus, 775 to 740 ; 
Cinaethus, 765 ; Eumelus, 761 ; Antimachus, 753 ; fol- 
lowed by Cercops, Asius of Samos, and Creophylus. 



CHAPTER II. 

mr. bryant's hypothesis. 



Mr. Bryant's hypothesis, in right of its bolder scep- 
ticism, and more intricate ingenuity, would seem to 
merit the precedence of that of the x w P t %° VTi s> to 



18 mr. bryant's hypothesis. 

which I have above made but a superficial allusion. 
Finding himself, then, at the beginning of the Trojan 
war, he says, " Every step we take is on fairy ground," 
and sets out with this declaration of his Homeric 
creed : "I do not believe that Helena of Sparta was 
ever carried away by Paris, and consequently that no 
such war ever took place as we find described by the 
poet, and that Troy in Phrygia was never besieged. 
Indeed, I am confident, it never existed." In support 
of these assertions, he adduces the following argu- 
ments, viz. : that Varro does not hold to be authentic 
any records preceding the first Olympiad, whom Thu- 
cydides, as far as his national prejudices would allow, 
supports by the confession that " OvSiv irpo tuv 
TpwtKtov, Si aaOivEiav kcu afii^iav aXXijXwv, lirpa£>av 
aOpooi." Next to this, Helen was a full-grown woman 
in the time of Theseus, to whom she bore a daughter 
named Iphis, and was rescued by her brothers, who, 
to make such an attempt, must have been adults ; and 
this precludes the belief of her being but seven years 
old, as some authors have affirmed : the same brothers 
were of the crew of the Argo, and this expedition was 
undertaken seventy-nine years before the out-breaking 
of the Trojan war; according to this chronology, she 
must have been about 104 years old at the close of the 
siege, (see II. w. 76.5,) and ten years older when Tele- 
machus saw her as beautiful as Diana ; besides, many 
of the Grecian chiefs, Idomeneus, Ulysses, Menes- 
theus, and Agamemnon, must have been about the 
same age. After this, he objects the improbability 
of the abduction of Menelaus' wife being considered 
by the other chiefs an adequate provocation ; added 
to the difficulty and delay of communication, as the 
Greeks did not, in that age, venture far to sea ; and, 
according to Herodotus, thought it a long and perilous 



mr. bryant's hypothesis. 19 

voyage to Delos. (See Herod. Urania, 133.) The 
number of ships collected on this occasion amounted, 
according to Homer, to 1186; whereas six or seven 
centuries after, in an important political struggle, they 
made up but 271 to meet the Persians at Artimisium, 
and at Salamis 390. At Marathon, the number of 
troops was but 10,000; whereas the levy at Aulis 
reached ten times that number ; and the improbability 
of their having acted on so large a scale in concert, 
and for such a cause, is evinced by the desertion of 
Leonidas at Thermopylae. On the abduction of Helen 
by Theseus, her brothers alone rose to the rescue. 
We learn, that till the Peloponnesian war, the Greeks 
waged their wars, on the same system as that adopted 
by the Romans, previously to the siege of Veii, cam- 
paigning during the summer only. Considering the 
great inferiority of the Trojans, admitted in the fol- 
lowing passages of the Iliad, j3. 121, £.788, 0.55, 130, 
t. 352, and ir. 698, it is, according to Mr. B., next to 
impossible, that the town could have remained so long 
untaken ; or that, while the general body of the army 
continued inactive before Troy, detachments should 
have been sent to effect the capture of subordinate 
towns in the neighbourhood ; it would be a natural 
apprehension too, that their ships could not last ; and 
indeed, symptoms of incipient decay are acknowledged 
by the poet himself, (II. |3. 135,) and yet Menelaus 
uses his ships for eight years after. 

Homer, when recording the construction of a foss 
and wall, of which Aristotle says 6 ttXcktciq, ttoiyityjq 
rjQavKrev, naturally anticipates an inquiry concerning 
its disappearance, and accordingly (jul. 16) takes his pre- 
caution in the shape of a design on the part of Nep- 
tune and Apollo ; and the means resorted to by them 
are, a confluence of all the Idaean rivers to the site of 



20 mr. bryant's hypothesis. 

the wall; but unfortunately the Granicus and the 
CEsepus ran into the Propontis about sixty miles 
distant, and the Rhesus was near the mouth of the 
Bosphorus, in Bithynian Thrace, and though it rose 
in Ida, yet its source was at the more distant side, and 
in this inundation, all the intervening towns must have 
been ruined. 

Now, as to the existence of Troy itself, no vestiges of 
the town or ruins could be found by Julius Caesar, ac- 
cording to Lucan, nor could Demetrius Scepsius or Strabo 
discover any traces. Alexander of Macedon would have 
rebuilt it, could he but discover where ; and the town 
which he did repair and enlarge, must have been far from 
the site of Homer's Troy ; of course, it was but prudent 
policy in the inhabitants to encourage the belief that 
they were identical. If the city had ever existed, ruins 
must have been visible, being vestiges which do not 
hastily disappear, comparing the length of time during 
which the ruins of Paestum, Palmyra, and Nicopolis have 
shewn their places and proved their magnificence. Stra- 
bo mentions an kpivsog, but as that tree could not have 
lasted for eleven centuries, it must have been another ; 
and the agreement of other features in the scenery 
with Homer's description, proves nothing, as having 
made that plain the scene of his epic, he may as easily 
delineate the scenery which he found, as by sub- 
stituting any other, altogether outrage probability. 
Strabo's account of the Callicolone would have it at 
the eastern side of the city, whereas Homer has placed 
it on the western : the relative positions too of this 
tpivaog, and the tomb of Uus, as defined by Homer, 
are inverted by Strabo. (See II. A. 166.) 

Mr. B. notices the fact of the names Ilium and 
Ilienses subsequently found existing in the district, but 
not Troja nor Trojani ; in fine, he advances the con- 



mr. bryawt's hypothesis. 21 

jecture that Homer was an Egyptian, who first pro- 
mulgated to the Greeks the knowledge of the existence 
of the Muses as deities ; while they were in reality 
but priestesses in the Egyptian temples, corresponding 
in number, which is rendered probable by the epithet 
fiovarjyETrjg applied to Osiris. On the festival alluded 
to in the text, II. a. 423, sq., he remarks, that according 
to Diodorus Siculus, it was customary with the Egyp- 
tians to carry the statue of Serapis across the Nile 
(wKsavbg) for twelve days, after which it was brought 
back. He also observes, that the title iroijuiveg \awv, 
so universally applied to Homer's heroes, is originally 
Egyptian ; and that the absence of the mention of the 
use of fish as an eatable, is in accordance with the ab- 
horrence in which that aliment was held by the Egyp- 
tians and Syrians ; also that the poet's praise of the 
Athenians, whose name he couples with that of Erec- 
theus, is attributable to the Egyptian origin of that 
monarch and his followers, as well as of Cecrops ; and 
that Clemens Alexandrinus alludes to a statement 
made by some preceding authors to the effect that 
Homer was an Egyptian. Mr. B. quotes more than 
a single authority, to prove that our poet received the 
materials of both his epics from Phanites, an Egyptian 
scribe, the writer of the same having been a priestess 
of Memphis, by name Phantasia, which name, though 
apparently Greek, is really Egyptian, derived from the 
word "hant," or " hont," (signifying " a priest,") which 
in Greek became " phant," and is accordingly a cor- 
ruption of phant-Isis (i. e. the priestess of Isis). A 
formation similar to that of the words, Hierophantus, 
Diophantus, Iophantus, &c. ; or, according to other 
accounts, that he obtained part of his history from 
Daphne, a lady of Thebes, of which he was himself, 
according to the same accounts, a native. Of this 



22 mr. Bryant's hypothesis. 

opinion appears to be the writer of his epitaph, which 
runs as follows : — "EvOaSe Osiog 'O/xripog, 6g 'EXXada 
iraaav azure, Or)[3r]g iicytyaiog ti')q ZKaTOVTcnrvXov . 

It appears too that Strabo found a Troy in Egypt, 
a few miles below Memphis, built by the Trojans who 
came with Menelaus, (compare Od. §. 355,) and that 
Diodorus Siculus speaks of the quarries of the Trojan 
Mountain, which supplied material for the building of 
the pyramids and of Troja .ZEgyptia. Now Mr. B. 
says, that if we admit the probability of the conjecture 
that Troy was in Egypt, we shall then see that the 
introduction of Memnon, the Ethiopian, is reasonable ; 
this Troy being the inlet to Egypt on the East, and 
therefore a post, the defence of which was worth the 
exertion and interference of a prince of Upper Egypt ; 
it being more probable that the Ethiopians of that 
region had assisted in the defence of Troy, than they 
who dwelt either on the Tigris, in India, or Arabia ; 
none of whom could, by any possibility, have come to 
the Phrygian Troy. There remain still three other 
arguments of the same tendency with the foregoing, the 
first of which is, the great diversity of accounts of the 
war, and the heroes concerned, found in the several 
writers on the subject, some of whom preceded Homer, 
whom Mr. B. seems inclined to place about the 
eighteenth Olympiad, such being the chronology of 
Euphorion ; of these authors were Sisyphus Cous, and 
Syagrius, with a lady named Helena, which several 
accounts of the war, and its conductors, were said to 
have been introduced by Melampus, and Cadmus, 
which latter, it would appear, came from Egyptian 
Thebes, not from Phoenicia. A few specimens of the 
inconsistency of these statements with those of Homer 
will suffice : sc. according to Eusebius, Helen was 
removed, not by Paris, but by Menestheus Ilieus; 



mr. bfiyant's hypothesis. 23 

and Ptolemy Hephaestion writes, that the commander 
of the European forces was not Agamemnon, but 
Protesilaus : Achilles the son of Peleus, and Achilles 
the son of Thetis, are two different individuals : 
Achilles was neither the son of Peleus nor Thetis, but 
of Philomela, daughter of Actor, according to Dei- 
machus: Achilles was not slain by Paris, but by Pen- 
thesilea ; and Memnon was never at Troy, and was, 
consequently, never slain by Achilles : JEneas never 
left Asia, and the town Scepsis, near Ida, was founded 
by Ascanius and Astyanax : the history of Polydorus, 
by Homer, differs from that found in Euripides and 
Virgil. The second argument is, Homer gives Greek 
names to the heroes and deities of the Phrygians, who, 
from the most remote antiquity, in which they did not 
consider themselves inferior even to the Egyptians, 
were most definitely distinct from the Greeks, and 
whose chief deities were Attis and Cybele, not Apollo 
and Minerva. He also gives his heroes of both parties 
names derived from the appellations and attributes of 
deities, an instance of which occurs in the name of 
Agamemnon, which was the Lacedaemonian title of 
Zevg, and which Mr. B. deems a derivative from aybg, 
and the Egyptian name Memnon : in conjunction with 
the name of this prince, occurs the epithet iroXvxpvaog, 
applied to Mycene, which it did not deserve, being 
inferior in wealth and antiquity to Argi and Lacedae- 
mon : with respect to these heroes, it is impossible 
that they could, to the number of fifty-five, have 
escaped all the dangers of the campaign for nine years, 
or that they could, either the vanquished or victors, 
have been the founders of new settlements, as iEneas 
in Italy, or Ulysses in Spain, among the Turditani. 
The third argument is, that some philosophers, parti- 
cularly Aristotle and Zeno, have interpreted both the 



24* mr. bryant's hypothesis. 

entire Iliad, and its episodes, as so many allegories of 
physical and moral phenomena ; agreeably to which 
doctrine, the scholiast on II. y, 74, says, Kara Se tov 
<j>V(tlkov \6yov, ' HiroWiov, "R\ioq tov, avaTrivEi ra vypa 
GTOiyua ; ' Adr\vi) lari <j)pov{]<JiQ, ^Aprjg $s afypoavvr) ; 
'HtyaiGTOg to irvp, ^avdoq St to vypov. 

Of Homer himself, Mr. Bryant's opinion is, that he 
was one of a family originally Ithacan, but removed to 
Egypt by pirates, or v. v. This transportation Mr. B. 
suspects to be numerous and extensive, and to have 
taken place at a date anterior to the planting of a Greek 
colony at Naucratis, in the reign of Psammeticus. This 
hypothesis is based upon the testimony of the Pseudo- 
Herodotus, or rather an appendix to his biography, by 
another hand, which contains the information, that 
Homer was the grandson of Melanopus, a foreign emi- 
grant, who settled at the iEolic city of Cuma, in Asia, 
and whose daughter Critheis gave birth, on the banks 
of the Meles, which flowed by Smyrna, to the poet, 
thence originally called Melesigenes : this name, Me- 
lanopus, Mr. B. would either interpret literally to sig- 
nify " one of dark complexion," or take to be a cor- 
ruption of Melampus, an Egyptian proper name : he 
would also prefer Melasigenes to Melesigenes, thus de- 
riving the name from t uiXag } the Greek name of the 
Nile, called in Latin Melo(4>). Mr. B., however, in 
support of his own hypothesis, observes, that from the 
facts of the poet never having mentioned Smyrna, 
nor the Meles, and of his evincing a more intimate ac- 
quaintance with Grecian scenery and geography than 
with Asiatic, he must have been an European Greek, 
and, if so, an Ithacan ; and did, most probably, repre- 
sent his own character and fortunes, under the name 
and in the history of Ulysses. The rest of the bio- 
graphy alluded to above, he rejects as impossibilities, 



REFUTATION MR. BRYANT S HYPOTHESIS. 2.) 

sc. that Mentes, a trader and master of a ship, having 
arrived at Smyrna, persuaded the young poet, whose 
curiosity and love of adventure he wished to gratify, 
to accompany him on his voyage, in. the course of 
which they visited Etruria and Spain ; and eventually 
put into Ithaca, where Homer, suffering from an af- 
fection of the eyes, was compelled to sojourn with 
Mentor ; and where he eventually lost his sight, which 
having subsequently recovered, he removed to Colo- 
phon, where he composed the Iliad and Odyssey. Mr. 
B. thinks it more probable that they were composed at 
Ithaca, from the many allusions to Ithaca, and the 
neighbouring islands, contained in the Odyssey : and at 
the same time, that the name Mentor is Egyptian, de- 
rived from " Men-tor," the tower of Menes ; he also 
admits the probability of the poet's having travelled 
very extensively by sea, from his acquaintance with 
its phenomena, &c, evinced by the texts, II. p. 263, 
sq., II. r. 375, Od. f . 313, 390, and 51 . 



CHAPTER III. 

REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 

In the investigation of the arguments adduced by Mr. 
Bryant, it will easily be discovered that they are cha- 
racterized rather by ingenuity than truth, when there 
is found, as is possible, in the epics of Homer, as much 
of historic truth, as is perhaps interwoven in the plot 
and composition of any other epic submitted to an 
equal strictness of examination. It will be readily 
conceded, that the introduction of allegory into the 



26 REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 

construction of a poem, even to a considerable extent, 
does not usually furnish any argument, to subvert the 
belief of its foundation on fact, and that such a basis, for 
su ch a sructure, is all that can reasonably be required. 
" That Helena of Sparta was ever carried away by 
Paris," may not be more true, than that Europa of 
Tyre was ever carried away by Jupiter in the shape of 
a bull ; but, it may be nevertheless true, that Europa 
of Tyre was the most valuable and most considered 
acquisition of a party of pirates, from the European 
side of the JEgean, in one of their most successful 
descents upon the Asiatic coast ; in retaliation for 
which, the Asiatic pirates, in their turn, appropri- 
ated the most distinguished of the Greek princesses, 
together with a considerable quantity of other valuable 
property, which is repeatedly mentioned in Homer, 
whenever the full extent of the aggression is intended 
to be expressed. (II. y. 70, &c.) Thus, the expedition 
for the recovery of Helen will be redeemed from the 
imputation of being a mere exploit of extravagant and 
romantic knight-errantry, and will come to be looked 
upon as an attempt to repel and resent a national in- 
sult ; as a contest in which the pride and patriotism of 
every Grecian chief would urge him to interfere ; on 
which were brought to bear the same feelings which 
urged the Argonauts to the recovery of the golden 
fleece(5). It was a motive far more powerful than the 
personal influence of Pelias in the one case, or Mene- 
laus in the other, which prompted to the undertaking 
these several enterprises. His next objection, con- 
nected with this part of the subject, is the impossibility 
of an intercourse between places so remote, sufficient 
to produce so extensive a participation in such a de- 
sign ; and yet he expresses his astonishment, both at 
the length of the preparation, and the absence of that 



communication (which he still deems impossible) be- 
tween the army before Troy and their friends in 
Greece, and which communication, we learn from the 
Iliad, (tt. 13.) was actually maintained: he quotes on this 
subject a confession from Thucydides, that the Greeks 
never acted in concert before the Trojan war, which is 
the very last quotation that he could prudently have 
adduced : the obvious inference from such a confession 
being, that they did, on that occasion, act in concert. 
It will appear that so far from the Greeks of that age 
entertaining any apprehension of danger, or difficulty, 
attending voyages of reasonable distance, that the 
JEgean was constantly infested by pirates, iLvx^q irap- 
Oifuvoi, KdKov aWoSairoluL (pipovTEQ, (Od. y. 74.) It 
must, of course, be granted, that they were grossly 
ignorant of navigation, and other nautical science ; but 
the general belief in the Argonautic expedition, and 
the accounts which we find of voyages undertaken to 
Italy, Sicily, and even Spain, (see the statements of the 
Pseudo-Herodotus, quoted by Mr. B. when speaking 
of Mentes, and the plantation of a Phoenician colony 
at Tartessus (Gades,) in the last-mentioned country, 
previously to the foundation of any of their African 
settlements,) shew that such an objection, to the prac- 
ticability of the expedition in question, is hypercritical. 
His next argument is deduced from the fact, that the 
number of troops and ships collected on this occasion 
exceeded the levies and armaments prepared for the 
reception of the Persians, six or seven centuries after : 
as to the number of troops, I would answer, by request- 
ing him to account for the Cimbri and Teutones having 
opposed Marius with a levy of 300,000 men, when it 
would be impossible to draw together, under arms, any 
thing like a proportionate army from the same part of 
modern Europe, with all the advantages, or (in this 



28 REFUTATION OF MR. B&YANT's HYPOTHESIS. 

case) disadvantages of civilization : the accumulation of 
years is not generally expected to produce a corres- 
ponding accession in the numbers or physical power of 
the inhabitants of a country. With respect to the 
ships, a falling off in their numbers is to be expected, 
proportioned to that in the number of men; and it 
will be also admitted, that an increase in the size of 
the vessels will very naturally account, independently 
of the other cause, for this diminution. We know that 
biremes were first built and employed by the Ery- 
thraeans, about 300 years after the fall of Troy, and, 
together with triremes, subsequently constructed by 
the Corinthians, and receiving occasional improve- 
ments and modifications even to the rerraEpaKOVTtprjg of 
Demetrius, continued in use for about 900 years from 
that date, sc. to the battle of Actium, after which they 
were disused. Thucydides definitely asserts, that even 
the Athenians, before the time of Themistocles, used 
no decked galleys ; those spoken of by Homer must, for 
these reasons, in addition to the evidence deducible from 
the Odyssey (ju. 100), have been monocrota, i.e. im- 
pelled by a single tier, on the gunwale, and undecked, 
almost mere gx^'m, of a structure scarcely, if at all, 
more complicated than that of the boats used by the 
Ukraine Tartars, of which, in a few days, they usually 
construct large quantities ; and the repair of those of 
Menelaus, or probably the construction of new vessels, 
was not impossible. He observes too, that the Greeks 
never campaigned during the winter, until the war of 
Deceleia ; but, that winter campaigns were not resorted 
to anywhere, until required by circumstances, is no 
argument against the truth of that innovation having 
taken place when it was deemed necessary. The tents 
of the Greeks before Troy, such as we find them des- 
cribed in 11. id. 4 19, sq. appear not unsuited to a winter 



REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANl's HYPOTHESIS. 29 

residence. Mr. B., when representing the improba- 
bility, for chronological reasons, of the same Helen 
having been the prize of Theseus and Paris, states 
that the distance in time between the Argonautic and 
Trojan expeditions was seventy-nine years ; whereas, I 
find, that according to the computation of Mr. Clinton, 
who does not decide hastily, but thirty-one years inter- 
vened ; and from the age of Helen, and her brothers, 
which, at the time of the former expedition, is fixed 
by Mr. B. at twenty-five years, may be reasonably 
deducted eight or ten ; and these subtractions will 
place Helen, at the time of her second abduction, with- 
in that age to which many ladies, even in the days of 
modern degeneracy, retain their attractions. The next 
alleged improbability is, that of the city itself having 
either remained unmolested for nearly ten years, while 
the neighbouring towns suffered the severity of the 
war, or, if assaulted, having withstood the efforts of 
the assailants during that time ; the former of which 
cases, if it be the real one, confirms what has been 
advanced above respecting the nature of the expe- 
dition ; if the latter, why should the historic truth of 
this siege admit of doubt rather than that of Veii, 
Numantia, Saragossa, and the other adducible in- 
stances of protracted sieges? besides, an inferiority of 
numbers, to a certain degree, on the part of the de- 
fenders, is naturally calculated to produce an effect, 
the reverse of that which Mr. B. would seem to anti- 
cipate. 

To deny the reality of the war at Troy, on the 
ground that the poet does not, adequately and with 
matter-of-fact precision, account for the disappearance 
of the Grecian rampart and foss, is as unreasonable as 
to refuse credence to the account of the pestilence in 
II. a. because the agent is Apollo, and the mean*, his 



30 REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 

characteristic weapons : the allegory, in both cases, it 
is almost superfluous to explain : the demolition of the 
rampart by an influx of the sea, being adumbrated in 
the one case ; and the malaria produced by the action 
of the sun's rays on the marshes of the Trojan plain, 
represented in the other. The employment of the Idaean 
rivers for this purpose, in the service of a deity, is as 
much within the limits of poetic probability as the 
workmanship of Achilles' shield by Vulcan : we would 
not be justified in denying the occurrence of a single 
combat between Achilles and iEneas, because the latter 
hero is removed by a deity through the air ; and to 
deny the existence of the city itself, because no ves- 
tiges remain, and because geographers cannot deter- 
mine with accuracy its position, is to deny to the speed 
of time, its undermining and wasting efficacy ; to re- 
fuse to decay the power to blight, and to efface the 
most beautiful as well as the most durable creations of 
human grandeur and human ingenuity. It is true that 
the hand of time has been known to fall lightly where 
that of man, in vengeance or hate, has left undone the 
work of sated animosity ; but this leniency is not to be 
everywhere looked for, and when a long night of unil- 
lumined barbarism has rolled away, the dawn of lite- 
rature and civilization finds, that the flight of ages, if 
silent, has not been ineffectual. What the tendency 
can be of the objection that the names Ilium and 
Ilienses, not Troja and Trojani, were found subse- 
quently existing in the district, is difficult to discover; 
as neither pair of names, being Latin, could have been 
used there before a very recent date. And, if the 
names v lA*ov and Tpoit] are signified, Homer uses them 
both, the former indeed more frequently, and applied 
to the city alone ; the latter signifying both city and 
district. 



REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT's HYPOTHESIS. 31 

Now, as to Homer being of Egyptian origin, we find 
Mr. B. proving the greater likelihood of Homer's resi- 
dence in Ithaca than in Asia, by the comparative 
paucity of his allusions to Asiatic history and scenery. 
The same argument, differently directed, will success- 
fully defeat his claims to any other than a Grecian na- 
tivity, his allusions to Egyptian history and manners 
being barely as many as may be expected from any 
native of Greece, whither had been imported, with Erec- 
theus, Cecrops, and Danaus, many of the manners, 
festivals, and legends of Egypt; which were perpetu- 
ated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, a transcript of the 
search of Isis, and in the legendary Styx and its ferry- 
man; the caemetery at Memphis, the only access to 
which was afforded by the river, and a boat of papyrus, 
(Virgil's Sutilis Cymba) being the foundation, on which 
was based this superstition. The festival alluded to in 
II. a. 423, sq. is also the type of an Egyptian cere- 
mony ; the Homeric Oceanus need not, however, be 
understood as a name of the Nile, if we define it, with 
Plato, to be a large river flowing round the earth. 
The epitaph quoted by Mr. B. must be of very recent 
date, the Greek not being classic, and the name of 
Thebes being written in the singular number, while 
Homer uses the plural, (II. t. 381.) (6.) Respecting 
the Egyptian Troy, we learn from Od. S. S55, that 
Menelaus arrived only at the island Pharos, where he 
consulted Proteus ; and, if the Troy spoken of had 
been built by his followers (captives they must have 
been, else they would have called it by a different name,) 
it could not have been the city which was besieged. 
At Od. 8. 368, we find fish used as an article of food ; 
as also at Od. /u. 330, sq. : the abstinence from fish, 
which, according to Eustathius, was only we to. woWa, 



32 REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 

is by him attributed merely to tbe idea, that the occu- 
pation of fishing was beneath the heroic character ; 
his words are, 6v Oe/iig aXieveiv rovg ripooag ; but, even 
admitting the remark to be correct, it could prove 
nothing ; for Herodotus (Euterpe. 92) definitely states, 
that fish constituted the ordinary food of considerable 
numbers of the Egyptians, particularly such as were 
dwelling on the banks of the river : the Syrians alone 
being the cnrixOvEg. It would be interesting to inquire, 
how much of Homer, either plot or episode, could, 
with any possibility, have flowed from an Egyptian 
source. The characters, the names, the manners, the 
scenery, the traditions and legends, except those of a 
theological nature, which are principally Phoenician, 
are all obviously and palpably Greek ; the only bor- 
rowed ingredient, then, must have been the mere frame- 
work, the plot ; which, from its simplicity, the skill of 
the poet being naturally more prominent in the filling 
up, need not, if it were not drawn from history, have 
exceeded any imagination of ordinary fertility to in- 
vent. If Homer and his narrative had both been of 
Egyptian origin, no plausible reason can be advanced 
for his not having gratified his national vanity, by 
representing his drama, with the scenery in which 
it had been first acted. We read, that on the in- 
troduction of the use of papyrus into Greece, it was dis- 
covered, with surprise, that down to that time the 
Egyptians had no records of a higher literary cha- 
racter than mere rituals; poetry was out of the ques- 
tion, as the intonation of their language was as remote 
from rhythmical harmony, as earth from heaven, 
(Knight's Prolegomena.) The objection that Homer 
gives Greek names to the two hostile nations, will 
operate as strongly against the Egyptian theory, as 
against the Phrygian, that is, if it have any influence 






REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 33 

at all, as the Greeks usually changed foreign names, 
in their terminations at least, into the soft sounds of 
their own language, as we find to be the case in the 
names of the kings of Persia ; Darwesh is smoothed 
into Darius ; Chosroes into Cyrus ; and Giamscheed al- 
together changed into Achaemenes ; and foreign deities 
were, naturally called by the names of such as corres- 
ponded, of their own ; thus, the Astarte of the Phoeni- 
cians was the Luna of the Latins, the Teutat and Beil 
of the Celts, were the Latin Mercury and Apollo, &c. 
Again, if Troy was in Egypt, who were the assailants ? 
If Greeks, and if they feared to cross the JEgean to 
Phrygia, it is not likely that they could have had the 
hardihood, to risk a voyage to Egypt : this would be 
far more improbable, than that the Ethiopians should 
have come to Troy. If I may hazard a conjecture on 
the subject of the Ethiopians, I would venture, what I 
conceive to be a rational solution of the fable of 
Tithonus and Aurora ; thus, Tithonus is the son of the 
king of Troy ; his brother Priam is the heir to the 
crown ; he, accordingly, collects as many as a love of 
novelty and adventure could induce to follow his for- 
tunes, (a practice not uncommon in this age,) and 
plants a colony, the distance of which eastward gave 
rise to the legend of his amour with Aurora. These 
settlers, as was customary, either unopposed, or by 
compulsion, incorporate with the natives, and the 
whole race are called by a name, which, like almost all 
names of antiquity, formed adjectively, literally sig- 
nifies " of dark complexion." And Memnon, the son 
of this Tithonus and a foreign mother, appears, with 
the strength of the new colony, to relieve the distress 
of the mother-city. As to Mycenae, we read in our 
Grecian histories that it was the earliest capital of 
Argolis, and that its maritime situation, its harbour 

F 



34 REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT's HYPOTHESIS. 

Nauplia, and consequent commercial importance, de- 
cided the superiority in favour of Argi, by which 
having been eventually superseded, Mycenae was at 
last destroyed by the Argives, b. c. 568. Of the irpay- 
juartjcr), the absurdity and elaborate trifling are un- 
worthy of a serious refutation; one remarkable in- 
stance, however, of its extreme nonsense, may not be 
uninteresting : sc. The entire narrative of the war at 
Troy is merely an ethical mythus : Helena (fr. i\eiv 9 
vovv) is the personification of mental beauty and moral 
excellence : the Trojans are the unrefined, animal, and 
unintellectual portion of society, from whom the Greeks, 
who are their moral opposites, rescue and appropriate 
the Helena. The formation of the names given by 
Homer to his heroes, constitutes a question obviously 
distinct from that of the historic truth of the narrative : 
the generality of Greek names, as has been already 
observed, being formed adjectively, and expressive of 
some quality or action of the possessor; confirmative 
of this, was the practice of changing the names of 
many celebrated Greeks, on their arriving at that age, 
when the development of their respective qualities be- 
came prominent, as in the cases of Stesichorus, Bel- 
lerophon, &c. 

Mr. B. conceives another improbability, sc. that 
any, either of the victors or vanquished, could have 
become the founders of new settlements, and this ob- 
jection is equally unconnected, as the preceding, with 
the subject to which its application was intended ; as 
Homer tells us, totidem verbis, that the descendants of 
./Eneas, in the third generation, were kings of Ilium in 
his time. II. u. 306-7, vvv de j3irj. k. r.X. which is the 
latest historic allusion in Homer. To his own remarks 
on this part of the subject, Mr. B. suggests a very 
satisfactory answer, when he says, " Homer borrows 



REFUTATION OF MR. BRYANT'S HYPOTHESIS. 35 

the titles and secondary appellations of the gods, these 
he confers on his heroes, and when persons after- 
wards found these names and titles, or names similar to 
these, in remote places where they traded, or made 
their abode, they imagined that the poet's heroes had 
settled there." It appears injudicious in Mr. B. to 
support himself on the authority of the Appendicist of 
the Pseudo-Herodotus, after having accused the same 
of being absurdly wrong in a matter of chronology, in 
fixing the era of Homer, subsequently to the period 
when Lesbos began to be the mother of cities ; when 
the capture of a city of Lesbos is mentioned in- the 
Iliad, (.271. The remaining observations of Mr. B. 
being unconnected with the subject of the controversy, 
it is unnecessary to allude to, save only as far as they, 
or the refutation of them, may form a vehicle of in- 
formation. The principal of those which seemed based 
on error, is the observation, that Homer, from the 
majority of his allusions to Ithaca, and the adjacent 
islands the Echinades, must, if not an Ithacan, have 
at least written there ; but the fact is, that Homer's 
geographical allusions are those only which are inci- 
dental to the action of each particular poem ; as in the 
Iliad we find the scenery of the Asiatic coast, the 
./Egean, and its islands, so to the Odyssey, the scene 
of which lies farther west, belong delineations of the 
physical features of the Ionian, and its islands. This 
difference, which has been elsewhere observed, gave 
rise to the partial belief of each poem having had its 
own separate author, that of the Iliad being a native 
of North-Eastern Greece ; and of the Odyssey, a 
South-Western. The difficulty intruded into the ex- 
position of the phrase " broad Hellespont," appears 
to me to have been always a "nodus in scirpo," as the 
words explain themselves. The Hellespont, on account 
of its current, was naturally considered by the Greeks 



36 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTE2. 

to be a river, and as such remarkable for its breadth ; 
in which opinion, as opposed to the common theory, 
I find myself supported by the position of the tombs 
of Achilles and Ajax, which are situated at the mouth 
of the Hellespont, and, in fact, on it. The words, 
irXarvg 'EWricnrovTOQ, may also probably be understood 
to signify, " the broad part of the Hellespont ;" for 
this interpretation there exists an analogy in Latin, an 
instance of which will be found in " ferox atas," (Hor. 
Od. 2, 5, 10.) This remark, though properly forming 
a part of the " Salebrse interpretationum," I suffer to 
remain here, in company with other corrections of 
Mr. Bryant's errors. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. 

The question relating to the shield of Achilles described 
in II. <r, is, from its importance to the arguments on 
both sides of this question, that from which this dis- 
sertation most naturally sets out. Of this Heyne says, 
" The description proves the poet to have been either 
altogether unacquainted with, or regardless of, the 
technicalities of the art, when he furnishes no further 
detail, than the melting of the metals in a crucible, the 
anvil set, the tongs in hand, and the deity at work; as 
if the figures by these means could have been imme- 
diately raised. The plan of the work should have been 
first prepared, after which, if the operation was to 
have been that of casting, a mould of clay, or some 
other material as easily shaped, (called by the Greeks 
Xi'7c$oc,) should have been provided, into which the 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1ZOXTE2. 37 

melted brass was to have been poured ; but then, how 
were the other metals to have been added or blended ; 
by what means such a work could have been accom- 
plished cannot be easily conceived. Let us suppose 
that it was the work of the hammer, and not moulded ; 
one or several plates of brass may have been formed, 
on which figures may have been raised by the hammer ; 
figures of different metals may also have been formed 
separately by the hammer, or in the mould, and 
joined by secret pins, and so on : but, had the poet 
conceived the work of Vulcan to be such, to what per- 
fection must the art have been cultivated among the 
Greeks ; exceeding anything that we find to have ex- 
isted among the Asiatics. Now, if this description 
was the work of Homer, who, though of uncertain date, 
must have preceded the earliest attempts at works of 
art among the Lydians and lonians, at least, by two 
generations, it would appear strange how the know- 
ledge of these arts could have been so far lost, as the 
necessity of again progressing from their simplest ru- 
diments would seem to indicate ; which we are informed 
was really the case among the Lydians and lonians, 
from whom the Greeks drew their knowledge. It may 
be advanced, that, under the culture of the Phoeni- 
cians and Babylonians, the arts attained their first per- 
fection ; the knowledge of them having been subse- 
quently communicated to the lonians, and that he 
modelled the decorations of the shield after the fashion 
of the works which he had seen among them ; but we 
do not, at the most distant date, read of any similar 
works among the Asiatics: besides, had it been an 
imitation of a Barbaric model, we would find the figures 
of a different fashion, monsters, hieroglyphics, &c. 
The earliest works, which have been written of, among 
the Asiatics of the coast, were wrought with the 



38 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTE2. 

plainest simplicity of design, though of immense weight 
and value; they were vases of gold, occasionally of 
silver, and more recently of brass, with statues, and 
busts, found in the Samian temple of Juno. Dedica- 
tions of the same description were sent to Delphi, by 
Gyges, whose era is computed, downwards, from 
Olymp. 15-3, i. e. 718, b, c, about 200 years after the 
era of Homer. Theopompus mentions him as the first 
in offerings of this nature. Herodotus informs us that, 
about at least a generation before the Lydian, Midas, 
the son of Gordias, dedicated a golden throne at Del- 
phi: the ark of Cypselus, dedicated at Olympia, before 
Ol. 49-1, 584 b. c, the construction of which, with its 
decorations of ivory and gold, is, however, dated at 
before 01. 80-3, is considered to be a specimen of 
Corinthian art. The date of the sculpture of the stone 
chair of Apollo at Amyclae, is not ascertained. The 
era of Rhaecus and Theodorus, who were the first 
known moulders of brass, is equally unknown, except 
that they may, with some probability, be placed ante- 
rior to the 30th Ol. : subsequently to this date arrived 
the age of literary and mechanical knowledge among 
the Ionians, and of wealth and luxury among the 
Lydians; beginning at the 40th Ol., and attaining 
their acme in the reign of Croesus, Ol. 54-3, b. c. 562. 
The devices of many shields are on record, all which 
consist of single figures, as those on the shield of 
Minerva, of Agamemnon (II. A.), and on those of the 
Septem C. Thebas, (in iEschylus' £7rra, and Euripides' 
Phcenissae,) but no where such a group as we find on 
this. Moreover, the subjects, pastoral and agricultu- 
ral, are, on a shield, out of place. The supposition 
which now obviously presents itself is, that this Ho- 
meric shield, even admitting that it did not exceed the 
degree of mechanical knowledge then existing, must 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. 39 

be a poetic fiction, neither imitated from any similar 
work, nor described consistently with the state of the 
art in that age. It appears probable, that it was 
some isolated poem, wherein the author had for his 
object to represent some of the occupations and acci- 
dents of human life ; the shape of a shield too, being 
that in which such a subject, comprising certain phy- 
sical phenomena, could be more easily pourtrayed. 
The view of the sphere has been compared to a robe of 
party-coloured embroidery ; a verse of Pherecydes is 
in existence, Zag ttolu <papog fxiya icai koXov, which 
has been assimilated to lines 483 and 606 of the a. 
This allegorical use of a robe we find in the Mysteries 
of Orpheus, and in the Panathenaea ; and a poet, 
following up this idea, may have designed the repre- 
sentation of the firmament on a superficies of brass. 
Accuracy is, of course, not to be looked for ; and, 
accordingly, we have the sun and moon, with some 
of the more remarkable stars, represented on the 
same plane ; no mention, however, is made of the 
Ursa Minor ; and the ocean, as a river, flows round 
the earth. The different conjectures respecting the 
arrangement of the figures, have adopted the various 
theories of parallel transverse arece; concentric fasciae: 
and cunei. Dionysius Hal. denominates the various 
subjects, as 7to\ltikov |3iov, vs. 491 ; or/oartamKov, 599 ; 
and yeiopyiKov 531, sq. Dr. Hancarville enumerates 
seventeen divisions of the argument ; but it would ap- 
pear, that more than eight cannot be reasonably enu- 
merated, commencing respectively at the lines 490, 509, 
541, 550, 561, 573, 587, and 596." 

Virgil's description of a similar subject, appears 
to have the advantage in two particulars ; sc. in that 
more is left in the 8th JEn. to the imagination of the 
reader, and that the device of the shield of yEneas, 



40 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZ0NTE2. 

composed of scenes from the most illustrious periods of 
the history of Rome, is in more strict keeping with the 
action of the epic. 

In answer to the charge of violation of unity, Mr. 
Payne Knight maintains a necessity for an episode 
about this particular place, in order to interrupt the 
series of combats which precede and follow ; and even 
supposes it to have been premeditated : as in the enu- 
meration of the armour lent to Patroclus, the spear, 
which, being of wood, could not form a subject for 
Vulcan's skill, is reserved. Another episode, dictated 
by the same, and no more urgent necessity, and con- 
taining as little relating to the subject, occurs in the 
6th Iliad, where, solely to create a variety in the action, 
and on a fruitless errand, Hector returns into the city 
and leaves the field ; nor, as the other objection would 
seem to imply, was it necessary that the poet should 
have seen any works of this nature any more than that 
Automata, described a few lines previously, should 
have been in existence. On the superfluity of ad- 
hering to strict probability, by describing in detail the 
work of a deity as if of a mortal, the same critic says, 
" Had the ancients believed that the operations of their 
gods were equally tedious and laborious as those of 
the inhabitants of earth, or had the poet possessed the 
subtle acumen of a modern critic, he would probably 
had given a graver to Vulcan, and a sling, on other oc- 
casions, to Jupiter: but a less intricate system of mi- 
racles was suited to the manners of that age ; and 
when the poet had witnessed shields and cuirasses 
marked with the rude decorations of the hammer or 
the needle, his prolific imagination experienced no dif- 
ficulty in attributing to a deity, greater powers and 
quickness of head and hand. Nor did he naturally 
feel a necessity of inquiring how or by what instru- 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTE2. 41 

merits the work may have been accomplished ; whether 

the same as those in use among men The 

names and distribution of the stars, however, were not 
known generally among the Greeks till after the age of 
Homer, when this knowledge was imparted to them by 

the Egyptians and Phoenicians The arguments 

adduced against the genuineness of the description of the 
infernal regions, (Od. A. 564, 626,) though apparently 
better founded, still require a degree of accuracy incon- 
sistent with the mystery, in which the delineation of 
scenes beyond this mortal world must naturally be in- 
volved : these lines have been considered insititious by 

Aristarchus and the ancient grammarians The 

alleged fault is, that the visitant of Hades, though at 
first intending to bring the shades of the dead to him- 
self, does eventually descend to them The 

miracles of superstition and poetry are incompatible 
with philosophical accuracy : and Virgil's account of 
Hades is not more probable and consistent. In Homer, 
we will find that every thing which comes within the 
range of daily and ordinary observation, is described 
with graphic and scrupulous accuracy, as the audience 
would not fail to detect therein an inconsistency or 
discrepancy ; but in whatever could not be subjected 
to the examination of the senses, or the test of imme- 
diate comparison, incongruity is disregarded, and sys- 
tem uncalled for ; hence, all that relates to deities above 
or below, in Heaven or Hades, is mysterious, incon- 
sistent, and indistinct. Thus, the Olympus of mortals 
is beaten by the tempest, while the Olympus of the 
Gods basks in a calm of heaven-like tranquillity. It 
has been attempted to prove from Pindar, (Olymp. 1.91,) 
that he was not aware of Homer's vticvia, but from the 
passage relating to Tantalus, it will be perceived, that 
this conclusion is hasty. The most conclusive proof 

G 



42 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. 

is, that the language is ancient and Homeric, and such 
as no rhapsodist in the age of Pisistratus could have 
preserved pure through so many verses ; and that the 
author was of remote antiquity, and anterior to the 
Carmina Heraclea of Peisander and others, is evident 
from his having attributed a bow to Hercules, and a 
club to Orion. The episode II. y. 121-244, is rejected 
on the pretext, that it is contrary to probability that 
Priam could have been so long ignorant of the persons 
of the Greek chiefs; but, when it was necessary to 
amuse the listeners by variety, the monotony of a series 
of combats was aptly interrupted by a few biographical 
sketches, however unnecessary, which, though known 
to Priam, were yet new and interesting to the hearers. 
The aptarda of Diomed, II. t. is also suspected of being 
a separate poem; but, were it omitted, the continuity 
of the whole Iliad would be interrupted, as out of it 
arise many of the subsequent events of the poem; 
the parting of Hector and Andromache ; the return of 
Paris to the field ; the wound of Diomed ; the escape 
of Nestor, by means of the horses of Tros ; the elated 
speech of Diomed to Agamemnon, (t. 32. sq.) well atoning 
for his silent forbearance in S. 401 ; and the embassy to 
Achilles. The episode of the single combat of Hector 
and Ajax (II. *j. 17, sq.), which has been assailed by 
the same species of argument, will be found to contain 
strong internal evidence of being Homeric, in the 
abrupt termination of the combat, which is admitted, 
even by Heyne,to be necessary to the economy of the en- 
tire plot. The same inconsistency appears in Heyne's 
remarks respecting II. k. and X; for, in order to prove 
that k was inserted by a later hand, he says that X 
opens with what appear to be properly its concluding 
verses, and yet, attempting to subject X to the same 
suspicion, he suggests that the opening is such as to 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTES. 43 

shew, that the poet intended to begin a new piece." 
Now, that this opening is really insititious, is proved 
by the allusion to the fable of Tithonus, which belongs 
to a later age, beside its incongruity with the preceding 
passages, sc. when Ulysses and Diomed set out, we 
have the time of night defined, eyyvQi rjivg, so that they 
may have light sufficient to direct their proceedings ; 
and, at their return, it must have been already day, by 
Nestor's panegyric on the horses of Rhesus. No book 
of the Iliad is more intimately connected with the pre- 
ceding than k. What has been quoted from Eustathius, 
that k was a separate poem of Homer's composition 
inserted by Pisistratus into the Iliad, is to be classed 
among the fabulce aniles, which constitute the accounts 
dignified by the names of Plutarch, Herodotus, &c, 
proceeding from silly schoolmasters, who would per- 
suade their hearers, that a man of the most exalted 
genius was also a schoolmaster of the same massive 
stupidity as themselves. The X is equally indispensable 
to the strict continuity of the poem ; the cause and 
connexion of the battle would be unintelligible, had not 
the anger and secession of Achilles, and consequent 
victory of the Trojans, been told; the opening, too, 
omitting the two first lines, follows continuously the 
close of k: from the engagement which followed the 
adventure of the night, result the apiarua of Patroclus ; 
the re-appearance of Achilles, and all the subsequent 
events intended by the poet; even the detention of 
Patroclus in the tent of Eurypylus, (II. o. 390,) was pre- 
meditated, and depends upon what X contains. The 
lines containing the embassy of Idaeus to the Grecian 
camp, have, with some plausibility, been deemed spu- 
rious ; but the impossibility of removing them, without 
producing a hiatus, will redeem them from the imputa- 
tion. The tradition of the collection of the rhapsodise 



44 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZ0NTE2. 

into single and continuous epics, by Pisistratus, if not 
altogether inadmissible, is to be understood only of the 
Athenian copy ; and that this was but lightly esteemed 
may be collected from the silence of the ancients res- 
pecting it. Among the SiopOwazig at Alexandria, none 
is mentioned bearing the name of Athens; as the 
language of such would probably vary most from its 
original form. It is only from the internal evidence, 
furnished by the poems, not from the conflicting opi- 
nions of grammarians, that arguments on the history 
of the Homeric poems are properly derivable ; as, 
though it may be reasonably conceded that these poems 
were brought into Greece in a scattered form, they 
may, however, have existed as monads among the Asi- 
atics, and accordingly Herodotus speaks of the Iliad 
and Odyssey as two entire and continuous poems. Of 
the copies in Ptolemy's collection the most esteemed is 
supposed to have been the Massilian, which the Phocaean 
settlers had originally taken with them from Asia. In- 
stead of the poems of Homer being indebted to the Athe- 
nians for their unity, they were probably divided by them 
to effect a greater facility of recitation. Of the name 
SiopOwGEtg K.7r., the definition by Villoison is, "editiones, 
quas curaverant nonnullae civitates;" that given above ac- 
cords with Wolf (7) ; but they may, with more probability, 
be conjectured to be the copies which had been collected 
from rhapsodiag,at the public expense of the several com- 
munities, whose names they bore. The present uniform 
appearance of the language of Homer is attributed by 
Wolf to the labours of Aristarchus, who is, neverthe- 
less, accused by Heyne of an ignorance of Homeric 
prosody. The probability of their having been correctly 
transmitted by oral tradition, is fortified both by the 
great numbers of those who constituted the class of 
rhapsodists ; and by the fact, that the correct trans- 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZ0NTE2. 45 

mission and preservation of them formed their sole 
duty and profession, which would render the preserva- 
tion of them a matter of more facility than that of the 
lyrics of the supposed Ossian. Hiero of Syracuse said, 
that more than 10,000 men were supported by the manes 
of Homer. An Irish antiquarian professes to have dis- 
covered an epic in the Celtic language, on the subject 
of the war of Troy, from which, according to his state- 
ment, Homer, and other ancient Greek poets, have 
borrowed ; and which Terpander, or some cotemporary 
poet, has translated ; never suspecting that his Hiber- 
nian Iliad was formed of the same materials, which 
furnished to Shakspeare his Troilus and Cressida ; 
though he may with safety have made the admission, 
and yet maintained that his Iliad was older than Ossian. 
The Homeric labours attributed to Lycurgus, were 
merely the invention of one totally unacquainted with 
antiquity, who had believed it as easy and expeditious 
to transcribe in the age of Lycurgus as in his own. 

I subjoin a concise but sufficiently explicit account 
of the different theories of the author and authorship 
of the Iliad and Odyssey ; that of Mr. Bryant I have 
already furnished ; the most worthy to succeed which 
is that of Constantine Koliades, a native of Ithaca, who 
agrees with Mr. B. as to Homer's connexion with 
the island ; but maintains the identity of Homer and 
Ulysses, as well as his own lineal descent from 
Eumaeus. He believes Ulysses to have been the author 
of the Iliad also, and attributes his acquaintance with 
Phrygian topography, to the tediousness of the cam- 
paign. In this doctrine M. Le Chevalier is a believer. 
The authorship of the two poems is separated by Giam- 
battista Vico, who attributes the one to North-Eastern, 
and the other to South- Western Greece : in this Mr. 
Knight and Mr. Mihmm partially concur ; the former 



46 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZ0NTE2. 

separating them by about 100 years, and placing He- 
siod a century later than the Odyssey. Mr. Wood, from 
the opening lines of II. i. considers Homer an Asiatic. 
Vargus Maciucca has discovered that Homer, having 
been a Cumaean, was consequently of Neapolitan blood. 
Though last, not the least extraordinary is the theory 
of Barnes, who identifies Homer and Solomon : by 
reading Omeros backwards, he gets Soremo, henctt 
Solemo, which is the same as Solomon! 

The version of the Trojan war by Herodotus is of 
course worthy of insertion : I give the English of 
sections 113 to 119 (inclusive) of Euterpe : " In answer 
to my inquiries concerning Helen, the priests re- 
counted the following particulars : that Alexander, on 
his voyage home from Sparta with Helen, was com- 
pelled by contrary winds to put into the Canobic mouth 
of the Nile, (as it is at present called,) as far as Tari- 
cheia, where stood, and still stands, a temple of Her- 
cules, the altar of which is a sanctuary ; that the fol- 
lowers of Alexander taking refuge here, laid informa- 
tion before the priests, and Thonis, the local governor, 
of the circumstances of Alexander's departure from 
Sparta ; upon hearing which, the governor sent a 
report of the transaction to Proteus the king, who, 
having sent for Alexander, and censured his conduct 
in the severest terms, informed him, that his respect for 
the laws of hospitality was the sole consideration which 
prevented his taking the revenge of Menelaus into his 
own hands ; that, however, he would retain possession 
of Helen, and the rest of the Spartan king's house- 
hold property, and keep them in Egypt, until claimed 
by the owner ; giving Paris, at the same time, notice 
to sail from Egypt within three days. That Homer 
was aware of this version of the story, I am confident, 
and his not having availed himself of it, is only to be 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. Ai 

accounted for by its not being equally suitable as that 
which he adopted, to the character of an epic poem. 
The Iliad and Odyssey, however, contain evidence of 
his knowledge of it ; as in the former, he makes allusion 
to Alexander's visit to Sidon during that expedition ; 
and in the latter, Helen is represented as having ac- 
quired, from the instruction of the Egyptian Poly- 
damna, an extensive knowledge of the medicinal pro- 
perties of herbs ; and we find Menelaus recounting 
to Telemachus the particulars of his visit to Egypt. 
These passages tend most convincingly to prove, that 
the Cyprian verses are not the work of Homer ; for in 
these he is asserted to have been but three days on his 
voyage home ; and upon my inquiring, if the belief of 
the Greeks in the reality of the Trojan war were 
groundless, they informed me, that their acquaintance 
with it was derived from the recital of Menelaus him- 
self, who asserted, that on the arrival of the Grecian 
army in the Troad, when their ambassadors had been 
assured on oath, by the Trojans, that Helen was in 
Egypt, the Greeks, still incredulous, continued the 
siege ; and, on taking the town, not finding Helen, 
Menelaus set sail for Egypt, and arriving at Memphis, 
and being kindly received and entertained by the 
king, regained his wife ; but, detained by contrary 
winds, and conceiving a necessity for a human sacri- 
fice, he seized and put to death two children, and then 
taking flight, was heard of no more in Egypt." 

Vico, whose theory has been just alluded to, after 
prefacing his own Homeric belief by a series of alleged 
inconsistencies and discrepancies, in the frequent juxta- 
position of barbarism and refinement, antiquity and 
novelty, philosophy and error, at length lays down, 
that " Homer was the ideal of the heroic character of 
the Greek people, relating its own history in national 



48 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. 

poetry." And, " every thing that is absurd and im- 
probable in Homer, as hitherto conceived, becomes 
appropriate and even necessary in the Homer now pro- 
posed. The uncertainty respecting the country of 
Homer obliges us to say, that if the people of Greece 
contended among themselves for the honour of having 
given birth to him, and all claimed him as citizen, it 
was because they were themselves Homer; if there 
was such a diversity of opinion as to the time in which 
he lived, it was, because he lived in the mouths and 
memories of the same people, from the Trojan war to 
the reign of Numa, about 460 years. 

The blindness and poverty of the rhapsodes were 
those of Homer — the blind (in Ionic Greek, ojuiripoi) 
possessing greater power of memory. In this manner 
Homer composed the Iliad in his youth; that is, in the in- 
fancy of Greece. She was then all glowing with sublime 
passions, with pride, resentment, and revenge. These 
passions are opposed to dissimulation, but do not exclude 
generosity. Greece, therefore, in her infancy, would 
admire Achilles, the hero of force. Homer composed 
the Odyssey in his old age, when the passions of the 
Greeks began to be cooled by reflection, the mother of 
prudence. Then she would naturally admire Ulysses, 
the hero of wisdom. In the youth of Homer, the pride 
of Agamemnon, the insolent violence of Achilles, pleased 
the people of Greece. In his old age, they had begun 
to take pleasure in the delights of Calypso, the voluptu- 
ousness of Circe, the songs of the Sirens, and the sports 
of the suitors of Penelope. In fact, how is it possible 
to refer to the same age, manners absolutely opposed 
to each other ? This difficulty struck Plato so forcibly, 
that, at a loss how otherwise to get rid of it, he ima- 
gines, that in the transports of poetic enthusiasm, he 
was enabled to foresee these effeminate and corrupt 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES, Vj 

manners. But, is not this to impute the very highest 
imprudence to one, whom he represents as the author 
of Greek civilization ? Longinus does not dare to 
defend the Homeric fables, except under pretext of 
their being philosophical allegories; which implies, 
that, if taken in their primary sense, they could not 
confer on Homer the honour of founding the civili- 
zation of Greece. But the fact is, that all these im- 
perfections, which have been so censured in the Ho- 
meric poetry, correspond to so many diversities of 
character among the Greeks themselves. Thanks to 
this discovery, Homer is henceforth assured of those 
three immortal titles, which have been given to him ; of 
having been the founder of Greek civilization — the 
father of all other poets — and the source of the differ- 
ent philosophies of his country. The lot of the Homeric 
poems is similar to that of the laws of the twelve tables. 
On the one hand, the world has ascribed those laws to 
the Athenian legislator, from whom, it is said, they 
passed to Rome, while no one has seen in them the 
history of the common law of the heroic tribes of 
Latium. On the other, the world has believed the 
poems of Homer to be the work of the rare genius of 
an individual, instead of discovering in them the his- 
tory of the common law of the heroic tribes of Greece." 
This theory, which possesses the merit of being emi- 
nently ingenious and philosophic, is calculated to at- 
tract the credence of such as may not have considered, 
that in an epic of so colossal dimensions as either of 
those in question, an infinite diversity of character is 
to be expected ; that amid so numerous a corps of per- 
sonages, the wisdom of the sage, the passionate error 
of the unsophisticated, the refinement of the vicious 
and opulent, and the rude barbarism of the ignorant 
and coarse-minded, must constitute some of the ne- 

H 



50 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZONTES. 

cessary ingredients in that attraction and excitement 
which have for their object to allure and detain the reader 
or the auditor. The alleged discrepancies between the 
two poems, are, doubtless, sufficiently accounted for 
by the difference between their respective moral ends ; 
the one teaching what to avoid, the other what to 
adopt. (See Horace, Epist. 1, 2.) 

We have then three leading theories on the subject 
of these extraordinary compositions, the first of which 
is the popular belief among all save the Grecian critics, 
sc, that they were written in their present united form 
by Homer, and being subsequently divided by the 
rhapsodists for the purpose of recitation, were eventu- 
ally re-united by the Pisistratida? . The second, which 
is the favourite of Bentley, adopts the belief, that they 
were originally, and by Homer, written in a fragmentary 
form, and combined by the Pisistratidae. The third is 
that advanced by those called Y^oiSovrfc, sc, Vico, 
Wolf, and Heyne. 

To this department of my subject naturally belongs 
the consideration of the effects, political and literary, 
produced by the promulgation of these poems among 
the Greeks. And these are to be most adequately and 
eloquently defined in the words of Dr. Kennedy, late 
Professor of Greek in the Dublin University. He 
says, speaking of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, 
" To this inundation I regard the restoration of the 
Homeric poems, as having mainly contributed to op- 
pose a barrier, one of feeling and excited pride, one 
based on the consciousness of hereditary superiority, 
and rendered yet more insurmountable by the political 
antipathies of the contending parties. We should ob- 
serve, moreover, that in this case the antipathies which 
were engendered by mutual aggression, borrowed a 
peculiar acrimony of character from the light in which 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQPIZON TE2. 51 

that aggression, and the resistance opposed to it, were 
viewed. It appears to have been a war upon principle ; 
one of a series of conflicts, the continuance of which 
was upheld on the plea of a judicial necessity." Of 
the latter effect he says, " The convergence of all the 
subordinate events described in the Iliad, (to instance 
in this particularly,) to one certain and fixed issue, the 
redress of the son of Thetis, the constant recurrence 
of his name, whether as an object of admiration or of 
censure, during his temporary secession from the 
councils of Agamemnon ; and the pre-eminent agency 
assigned to him of conducting affairs to their catas- 
trophe, could not fail of pre-occupying the mind with 
a principle, which was from thenceforward closely inter- 
woven with the literature of Greece. To this we are 
unquestionably to trace the admirable simplicity both 
of argument and construction which pervades the 
writings of her dramatists, and the total absence of all 
considerations, those excepted which bear immediately 
on the subject, that lends so much power to the com- 
positions of her orators." 

On the anomalies between the Iliad and Odyssey, 
independently of those of a philological nature, Mr. 
Knight says, " As the author of the Iliad is more pro- 
fuse in his decorations, so is he less extravagant in his 
fictions, which was the result, not merely of a younger 
mind and more severe judgment, but also of the prox- 
imity of the scene of action in the former, where the 
topography of plain, river, and mountain required a 
scrupulous regard to truth ; the auditors being the in- 
habitants of the neighbouring districts ; while the 
physical and moral excellencies of the personages ad- 
mitted of an almost supernatural exaggeration : at the 
same time, the fictions of the poet, whatever they may 
have been, respecting the small, distant, and obscure 



52 CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTE2. 

island of Ithaca, were eagerly, and without question, 
received by his Asiatic audience, necessarily less curious 
concerning the wanderings of Ulysses, and the lands and 
monsters which he was said to have visited and en- 
countered. Nor would the geographers of a succeeding 
age be more sensibly employed, were they to seek Lili- 
put among the South Sea islands, than in endeavouring 
to identify the scenery of the Odyssey with that of the 
Sicilian or Tyrrhene seas. That this was the opinion 
of several critics of antiquity is certain, though the fond- 
ness for Homeric mythology and decoration evinced by 
succeeding poets, has added their influence to the other 
doctrine. The inhabitants too of these several countries, 
through national vanity, eagerly adopted and ostentati- 
ously enhanced the faintest tradition of the identity of 
their predecessors with the heroes of Troy, and hence 
arose the belief that Sicily, Campania, and Corey ra 
(Scheria) were originally the countries of the Cyclopes, 
the Laestrygones, and the Phaeacians. The identity of 
the Homeric and modern Ithaca depends on the reading 
suggested with schoolboy ignorance by Mr. Bryant of 
civrap for al$£ t in Od. i, 26, as neither idiom nor 
sense sanctions the antithetic use of civrap and avrr] re- 
ferring to the same thing. In the Iliad we do not find 
Mercury the messenger of the gods, Neptune the bearer 
of the trident, Delos sacred to Apollo, the Pythian 
Oracle, Theseus, or the apotheosis of mortals. Pan, 
Silenus, Bacchus, and Cupid belong to a system of 
theology posterior in date to both poems. 

Columns, as an architectural embellishment (8), are 
not mentioned in theIliad,nor does the application of the 
epithet axpoppbg to the ocean, peculiar to the Odyssey, 
occur in any genuine passage, a. 399 being spurious. 
Falconry and the use of a net in fishing are also 
absent. That the Odyssey properly extends no far- 



CONTROVERSY OF THE XQP1Z0NTES. Oa 

ther than \fj. 296, was the opinion of Aristarchus and 
Aristophanes, and must also be the conviction of any 
one, even moderately acquainted with Homerica, from 
the wide inconsistency of the following' with the pre- 
ceding part of the poem : the prophecy of Tiresias 
(A. 120.) is not fulfilled inthe close of the poem. The 
heroes of both epics, though savage, are yet noble and 
high-minded, and incapable of the cold cruelty assigned 
to Ulysses and Telemachus on their restoration. In all 
cases Homer adapts himself to the taste of his audience ; 
so that from the truth of such delineations as they were 
capable of appreciating, even the professedly fictitious 
borrows an air of the natural and probable. Similar to 
this was the caution evinced in the same particular by 
the old poets of the North, which most convincingly 
refutes the claim of Ossian's poems to antiquity. 

To the poet himself and his companions, if, as 
Grecian emigrants, they had settled in Asia, no theme 
could have been more grateful than the battles fought 
by their ancestors on the plains now their own ; nor 
could any poem have conveyed a more profitable moral 
than that which held up to them the evil consequences 
of internal dissension. The ruin of the cities of Pelo- 
ponnessus is darkly and mysteriously hinted at, as an 
event yet uncertain, but the subject of discussion among 
the Gods, (II. S. 51, sq.) and, therefore, naturally to be 
anticipated : the allusion is of such a character as if 
the poet desired, and at the same time feared, to awa- 
ken on such a subject, strong and distinct reminis- 
censes in the minds of men, who, in a distant land, 
would thus have to contemplate the hostile occupation 
of the cities of their ancestors, without knowing if 
their successors had preserved or ruined them. A 
catalogue of the names of cities, mountains, and rivers, 
(11. fi.) can hardly be deemed acceptable to the ears 



54 SHIELD OF ACHILLES. 

of any others than exiles, who had probably spent their 
childhood among them. Two principal migrations are 
recorded, one of the iEolians, 1124 b. c. ; another of 
the Ionians, 1044 b. c. : but the poet seems unaware of 
this distinction, and, in his enumeration of the tribes, 
makes no mention of the iEolians, Dorians, or Ionians : 
Heyne rejects, as interpolated, v. 681 of /3, in which the 
Iaones are mentioned. Even before the Homeric era, 
a tribe of Dorians did inhabit the mountains of Thes- 
saly ; the silence of the poet respecting these may 
have been occasioned either by their having taken no 
part in the war, or by a feeling of jealousy on his part, 
which Hercules and the Heraclidae also incurred by 
their invasion of the Peloponnesus ; hence the un- 
favourable mention of Tlepolemus in II. £." 



CHAPTER V 



SHIELD OF ACHILLES. 



It has been a question ever since the days of Aristotle, 
" How the assertion is to be understood, that the Wain 
is the only constellation which never sets below the 
horizon." Aristotle conjectures that by the Wain are 
indicated all the stars, which never set. The reading 
oiog for olk) is suggested by Crates ; but Strabo, re- 
taining the old reading, explains the Bear to mean the 
whole Arctic Circle. The constellations which never 
disappear in the latitude of Troy, Attica, and Pelopo- 
nesus, are Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Minor, and seven 
stars of Ursa Major, except */. The usual expedient 
for explaining away the difficulty, is to suppose that 



SHIELD OF ACHILLES. 55 

the Ursa Major was the only Arctic constellation known 
to the Greeks in the age of Homer ; but they appear 
to have acquired some acquaintance with others, as 
early as 1225 b. c. Mr. Bryant supposes Homer to 
have derived his ideas on this subject from an Egyptian 
table ; and if we do believe that his map, or series of 
pictures, had an Egyptian origin, the difficulty will dis- 
appear. The star, now called the Polar, must, in the 
Trojan era, have been about 15° from the Pole; about 
4000 years ago, a in Draco was but 10' from the Pole; 
about 3000 years ago, k in Draco was less than 5° from 
the Pole, and the most remarkable star ; but, as the 
Earth's Pole continued to revolve round the Pole of 
the Ecliptic, ]3 in Ursa Minor may probably be con- 
sidered the Polar Star about 2450 years ago, though 
Bernouilli has brought the period down to 2000. 
Taking, however, the period 2450, though the con- 
stellation contained no very remarkable star ; when /3 
became the nearest to the Pole, it naturally attracted 
attention, and therefore this, with the adjacent stars, 
which had been previously included among those of 
Draco, may have been considered a separate constel- 
lation. This will appear probable, if we remember that 
their knowledge of these stars was first imparted to 
the Greeks by Thales, who lived about 2350 years ago, 
and was himself instructed by the Phoenicians, who first 
raised it to the rank of a constellation ; this then must 
have happened when this star became the nearest to 
the Pole, about 100 years before Thales, and 250 
after the death of Homer, to whom therefore it could 
not be known; but a in Draco being but 10' from the 
Pole about 4000 years back, and k in the same, within 
5° of the Pole, about 1000 years later (the Trojan era), 
the place of the Pole, about that time, was such, that the 
seven stars of the Wain must have been all within the 



.')(.) SHIELD OF ACHILLES. 

Arctic Circle, and never disappeared, at this side of 
the Tropic of Cancer, which was not the case with the 
entire of Cepheus and Draco. It appears then, that at 
the Trojan era, in Egypt, the seven stars of the Wain, 
which evidently are those alluded to by Homer, were 
the only stars which never disappeared below the 
horizon. The hypothesis may not be erroneous, that 
the devices on the shield were intended to represent 
the four seasons of the year and the twelve months. It 
is on record, that the ancient Attic year began at the 
winter solstice. This year probably consisted of 360 
days, at the end of which five days were intercalated, 
and these five days were probably those which they 
called the second Posideon. The Egyptians certainly 
placed their five intercalary days at the end of the year. 

1. The first picture is that of a marriage, v. 490. 
Now the first month of the old Attic year was Game- 
lion, so called from a festival celebrated by those who 
were about to marry, which the Athenians were in the 
habit of doing at this time. 

2. The second represents a litigation concerning a 
homicide, v. 497. The second month, Anthesterion, 
corresponded to part of January and part of February ; 
in this month it was the practice of both Greeks and 
Romans, at the festivals vticvaia and Februa, to do 
honour to the dead, and at the vsfiema, to redress their 
wrongs. 

3. The third contains a scene in a court of justice, 
v. 503 : this description corresponds exactly with the 
system of proceedings in the Areopagus, the mem- 
bers of which sat on stones, in a circle, with sceptres 
in their hands, and were paid a certain sum for the 
hearing of each case ; and being elected on the twelfth 
day of Anthesterion, sat to hear causes at thirty days 
after, i. e., in the third month, Elaphebolion. 



SHIELD OF ACHILLES, 57 

4. The fourth places before us an invested town, 
&c, v. 509 : the fourth month, Munychion, coincides 
with the Egyptian month Phamenoth, when the sun 
was in Aries ; the month and the sign were both sacred 
to Mars andMinerva, who are here introduced ; hence 
the name of the Roman month, which partly corres- 
ponded. 

5. The fifth, v. 520, describes an ambuscade: 
the fifth month, Thargelion, took its name from the 
Thargelia, a festival of Apollo, which took place on 
the sixth and seventh days of the month. The fol- 
lowing is a historical fact : " Thebes was assailed at 
the same time by an army of iEolians on one hand, 
and Pelasgi on the other. During the time of this 
festival, a cessation of hostilities was observed, and 
both parties cut clown laurels in honour of the god, on 
Helicon and the banks of the Melas. The Theban 
general, pretending to be commanded by a celestial 
vision, made a sortie, in which many of the enemy 
were slain." The festival was called Daphnephoria at 
Thebes. 

6. The sixth presents the details of a battle (v. 527) 
and the taking of a city. It was on the twenty-eighth 
day of the sixth month, Scirrophorion, that Troy fell. 

7. In the seventh is painted the ploughing of a 
field. The Greeks were accustomed to plough in 
Hecatombaeon, originally called Kronion, the seventh 
month of the old, and first of the new year, at the sum- 
mer solstice ; after having previously done so at the 
bruma. 

8. The eighth picture is emblematical of the 
eighth month, Metageitnion, in which the greater part 
of the corn was cut down previously to the commence- 
ment of the Eleusinia, which took place about the 
fifteenth of the next month. 



58 THE PLAIN OF TROY". 

9. The ninth picture, v. 561, the vineyard scene, is 
intended to typify the ninth month Boedromion, on the 
twentieth day of which, during the occupation de- 
scribed, the image of Bacchus was carried to Eleusis, 
accompanied by music, dancing, &c. 

10, 11. The tenth and eleventh pictures similarly 
represent the occupations of the corresponding months. 

12. The twelfth, that delineating the dance, is com- 
memorative of the ceremony with which Theseus, on 
his return from Crete, and sojourn at Delos, erected in 
honour of Venus, a statue which had been given him 
by Ariadne ; this ceremony consisted of a dance, in 
which were represented the mazes of the Labyrinth of 
D<zdalus(9.) In this month, Poseideon, was celebrated 
a festival called OaXvaia, the object of which was to re- 
turn thanks to the Gods. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PLAIN OF TROY. 



It was the belief of all the ancients, and the moderns, 
except Mr. Bryant, (and, I believe, Mr. Hobhouse,) 
that the scene of the Ilian battles was what is now 
called the plain of Mender e. The station of the Grecian 
camp appears not to have been on the open sea, but a 
bay, KoXwog, into which fell the Scamander. II. <r. 140. 
From Od. 7. 157, sq., this bay appears to have been 
situated to the north of Tenedos, and south of Imbros. 
It was also within view of Ida and Samothrace, II. 
0. 48. X. 10. A plain corresponding in all these parti- 
culars to that described by Homer cannot be discovered 



THE PLAIN OF TROY. 59 

farther up on the Hellespont than this ; and did such 
a plain even present itself, the highlands of Thrace 
would intercept the view from Samothrace. 

To establish this theory, it becomes necessary to 
examine what is transmitted to us respecting the sur- 
rounding objects, the consideration of which is inse- 
parable from that of the city itself. Of these the prin- 
cipal are the rivers. 

Simois and Scamander, between which Homer has 
placed the city, II. S. 507, flowing from Ida, II. ju. 19, 
blending their waters before they reached the sea, II. 
c. 774, and falling by the same mouth into the Helles- 
pont, a little to the north-east of the Greek camp. 
Thus, between the city and the station of the Greeks 
intervened the channel of the Scamander, the more 
western of the two, the ford of which is crossed on 
all occasions by those travelling from either point to 
the other, vid. II. ?. 432, to. 349, 692. The streams 
at present intersecting the plain are — the Mendere, 
flowing from Ida north-west through ir, and the Dom- 
brik flowing west through e, and joining the former at 
a ; the Kirke-joss flowing from \p through v ; and the 
Kimair, running west through r : these two, however, 
must be considered to be merely branches of the Mendere, 

From the descriptions of the Scamander by Strabo 
and Herodotus, (independently of the analogy of the 
names,) it could have been no other than the Mendere, 
and as the name was preserved at all, it could not have 
been transferred, as M. Chevalier would have it, to 
any other from the stream to which it originally be- 
longed. In Homer, the Scamander is designated as 
the principal river in the plain, by the epithets Sivrieig, 
ivppooq, and &or,o£$r)e, which were suggested by the 
nature and place of its source, a beautiful fall from 
Gargarus, the earthly seat of the Olympian king. All 



GO THE PLAIN OF TROY. 

these particulars tend to identify it with the Mendere, 
to which, and to no other, they are applicable : this 
identity is still more substantiated by the name Xan- 
thus, which, from its colour, may be even now applied 
to the Mendere. The Kirke-joss, (i. e. forty eyes, sc, 
springs ; forty, in Oriental idioms, signifying an inde- 
finite number,) is considered by M. Chevalier to have 
been the Scamander, but this stream, which is but 
three feet deep, could neither merit the titles given by 
Homer to the Scamander, nor the name Xanthus (its 
waters being particularly clear) ; nor does it flow from 
Ida, but from the hill Bournabashi (£). Homer men- 
tions two springs, one hot, the other cold, not, how- 
ever, as sources of the river, which rose in the moun- 
tain ; the springs at \p are all cold, and about fifteen in 
number. 

The Simois. Strabo says, that the Simois and 
Scamander approaching, the one to Sigeum and the 
other to Rhetaeum, unite at a short distance before 
New Ilium, and form a marsh. Now, no stream ap- 
proaches Rhetaeum (7) but the Dombrik, nor Sigeum (c) 
but the Mendere, and they unite at £: in addition to 
this, the inhabitants of New Ilium considered their city 
to be the Homeric, which belief, though it may have 
proceeded from national vanity, proves, however, that 
the rivers between which it stood were the ancient 
Scamander and Simois. The Dombrik is considered 
by M. Chevalier to have been the Thymbrius ; now, the 
Dombrik is better adapted than any other to act against 
any object, situated at the mouth of the Scamander ; 
and in the catalogue of rivers employed to destroy the 
Grecian wall, the Simois is included, and the Thym- 
brius omitted ; the Dombrik, therefore, could not have 
been the Thymbrius. 

The "Grecian Camp must have lain at about a, and 






THE PLAIN OF TROY. 61 

extended from that point on both sides towards g and y. 
As the rest of the shore was rocky for some miles at 
either side, its place must have been to the west of the 
mouth of the rivers, as already shewn. The space 
must have been flat and sandy (II. fi. 31), and narrow 
(II. £. 31). All which particulars prove the place, now 
called Koum-kale (Kwjuoe KaXbg), to have been the site 
of*the Greek station. Sir W. Gell mentions his dis- 
covery of dry channels to the east of the present streams, 
which ought necessarily to run a little to the west 
of their ancient course, because the Scamander flowed 
through an alluvial soil, the accumulation of which must 
have been greater on the eastern side, where the Ki- 
mair, Kalifat-osmak, and Dombrik flow. This site, 
then, corresponds in all particulars with the allusions in 
Homer, II. 0. 222, i. 71, fc 30, <r. 140, &c. 

The Trojan Camp most probably extended from 9 
to |3 : it could not have been very far from the Grecian 
camp ; as Agamemnon in the latter hears music and the 
hum of voices from the former, (II. k. 8.) ; and Dolon 
(a few lines after) describes part of the Trojan force as 
not far distant. If we understand the sea alluded to 
in the text to be the JEge&n (not the Hellespont,) 
the position of the several troops will agree with this 
hypothesis ; according to which, Thymbra ought to be 
about i, and the Kirke-joss to have been the Thym- 
brius ; both were probably derived from the name of 
the herb Ovjifipa, which grew on that part of the plain 
watered by the river, which must, by reason of the 
water and verdure, have presented a favourable station 
for cavalry. 

The Tomb of Ilus, according to the evidence to be 
collected from the text, was situated somewhere about 
v. The Trojans, on the day following the capture of 
Dolon, pass by it on their way to the city from the 



62 THE PLAIN OF TROY. 

camp ; from which, however, it could not have been 
very far distant, as Hector retires thither from the 
camp to hold an uninterrupted council. 

The Thrdsmos, from a comparison of the several pas- 
sages where it is mentioned, would seem to include all 
that space which intervenes between the Mendere and 
the JEgean about ( u and v, the entire surface of which is a 
plain more or less inclined : in II. 6. 489, it is near the 
ships; in 6. 558, and*. 11, it is a plain, or part of aplain ; 
in k. 160, 428, and 434, it is the whole space occupied 
by the Trojan forces, between the sea, the Scamander, 
and Thymbra. And in v. 3, the Trojans, both at the 
river and in their camp, are said to be £71-1 dptxTny ; 
but never when on the eastern side of the river. 

Troy. That the city stood about three miles from 
the Grecian camp, at the hill Issarlik, £, the site of 
modern Ilium, is a reasonable inference from the fol- 
lowing internal evidences : from II. y. 116, sq. it may 
be deduced, that the two armies are then standing 
about mid-way between the city and the Grecian camp : 
heralds, sent to both places for victims, return about 
the same time, and Helen, at this distance, which 
cannot, therefore, be more than half of that stated 
above, distinguishes the persons of the Greek chiefs. 
From II. k. 12, it may be collected, that Agamemnon, 
at his own camp, saw some parts of the city, on which 
the intervening fires were reflected. When the Tro- 
jans are encamped on the banks of the Scamander, 
II. 0. 503, sq. Hector orders the heralds to bring from 
the city, cattle, wine, &c. ; these are brought, a repast 
is prepared, and sleep is enjoyed, though from the 
time when the order was given, to the hour for taking 
the field, not more than seven hours intervened. On 
the morning of the day following the first battle, Idastis 
comes to the ships, at the daivn, t)ioOev } negotiates a 



THE PLAIN OF TROY. 



63 



truce, and returns to Troy; the Trojans then leave 
the city for the purpose of burying the slain; and, 
after the sun had just risen, viov TrpoaifiaWev apovpag, 
meet the Greeks, who had come forth with the same 
object : the time, then, which all this occupied, could 
not have been more than an hour and half, which 
would not have sufficed had the distance been longer. 
Previously to the last battle (II. v. 51), Minerva en- 
courages the Greeks, addressing them from the echoing 
shore; and Mars awakens the ardour of the Trojans, 
sending his voice from the Acropolis ; this could not 
have been done had the Acropolis been farther from 
the shore than Issarlik, sc. had its place been £, or p t 
where M. Chevalier and Strabo respectively determine 
its position, or x or <r according to Dr. Clarke and Ma- 
jor Rennell. If Troy did stand about this distance from 
the ships, from the evidences contained in II. 7. 253, 
7r, 396, o. 558, and Od. 0. 508, it could have occupied 
no other site than ? ; Issarlik being a hill about seven 
furlongs in length by five in breadth, with a gentle 
ascent on the south-east and west, and a precipitous 
front of about seventy feet high on the north. 



_HeUesP ont " 










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7 


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C 

e 


1 


£ 




p 




7T 




X 

p 


V 


T 
V 










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I 



64 NEW THEORY CONCERNING 

CHAPTER VII. 

-NEW THEORY CONCERNING THE HOMERIC POEMS. 
(Adversaria Liter aria, Class. Journal.) 

The poetry of Homer is complete ; the structure of 
the hexameter is equalled by no other mode of ver- 
sification in any language ; the formation of the 
phrases, the collocation of the words, the figurative 
diction, the animation of inanimate nature, whatever 
else distinguishes poetry from prose, is introduced 
in its most perfect mode into the poems of Homer. 
The universal opinion of all ages has acknowledged 
these to constitute the true poetical character, and 
no succeeding age has improved on any of them. 
Was he then the inventor of them ? This exceeds 
human power. Was he preceded by other bards, on 
whom he refined, and whom he transcendently ex- 
celled ? If this were the case, what has become of 
these antecedent poets ? To solve these difficulties, 
the reminiscent (C. Butler, Esq.) begs leave to insert a 
conjecture, in which he has sometimes indulged him- 
self — that there existed in central Asia a civilized and 
powerful nation, in which the Sanscritan language was 
spoken, and the religion of Brama prevailed ; this the 
initiated might reconcile, by emblematical representa- 
tion, with philosophy ; but, in the sense in which it was 
received by the people at large, it was the rankest 
idolatry : that, comparing what the writers on India, 
and the Siamese, Chinese, and Japanese writers relate 
of a celebrated man, whom they severally call Budda, 
/Sommonocoddom, Foki, and Xaha, we have reason to 



THE HOMERIC POEMS. 65 

suppose that he was the same person, and a reformer 
of the Sanscritan creed and ceremonial ; that his re- 
formed system may be called Buddlsm ; that this still 
prevails in Tartary, China, and numerous islands in 
the Indian Archipelago ; but that Sanscritism still ex- 
ists in Hindustan ; that either before or after the Bud- 
distic schism, and not far from the time usually assigned 
to the fabulous ages, the Sanscritans spread their doc- 
trines and languages over the countries which lay to 
the west, so that in the course of time they became 
the religious creed and language both of Greece and 
Italy ; that civilization and the arts and sciences flou- 
rished among them ; that those who introduced them 
into Greece were called the Pelasgi; that those who 
introduced them into Italy received the appellation of 
Hetruscans; that, by degrees, the Sanscritan was 
moulded into the Greek language ; that from the Greek 
it degenerated in Italy into the Latin; that this state of 
things continued in Greece till the irruption of the 
Dorians and Heraclidse into Peloponesus, about eighty 
years after the Trojan war; and in Italy, until the 
period usually assigned for the foundation of Rome, 
when, from some unknown event, the glories of He- 
truria were considerably impaired ; that, after the 
settlement of the Dorians and Heraclidae in Pelopo- 
nesus, but while the former traditionary learning of 
Greece was still remembered, Homer wrote ; that in 
the confusion which followed this event, the memory 
of Homer, and the preceding or cotemporary poets, 
was lost, and that the minor poets were never revived ; 
but that the super-eminent merit of Homer resusci- 
tated his poems, and restored them to celebrity. This 
conjecture receives some countenance from the opinion 
generally entertained by the ancients, that Homer ac- 
quired his knowledge in Egypt, and the Egyptians 

K 



66 SALEBR^E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

theirs from India, and from the system of Sir W. 
Jones (in his excellent dissertation in the Asiatic Re- 
searches) respecting the identity of the Indian, Gre- 
cian, and Italian deities. Among these, if we believe 
Dr. Milne, we should include the national deities of 
China, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SALEBRjE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

Under this head, it is intended to offer remarks on what 
would appear, on analogical and grammatical principles, 
to be the most correct interpretations of those passages 
in the text of Homer, the several senses of which have 
either been generally misunderstood or deficiently elu- 
cidated. 

II. a. 6. A writer in the Classical Journal suggests 
Aibg as the antecedent to the relative ov ; thus under- 
standing the poet to attribute to the previous determi- 
nation of Jupiter, the several occurrences which ensue, 
still more explicitly, than by the parenthetic observation 
in the preceding line. 

17. 'EuKpry/xtSec 'A^atoi. It is conjectured by Dr. 
Jones, that the adjective here, commonly considered 
as merely ornative, is an epithet designative of the 
rank of the chieftains, (the (3ov\r}<f>6f)oi, the members 
of the council,) as .distinguished from the general body 
of the people. The analogous epithet, applicable to 
our own aristocracy, would be " well-gartered English- 
men." The boot appears to have been a distinctive 
badge of the Roman nobility also. Vid. Hor. Sat. 
1, 6, 27. 



SALEBRyE interpretation™ et CRITICyE. 67 

37. TevzSolo re l(j)i avaaauQ, ""Icpt is here generally 
understood to signify " power," but being obviously 
derived from the Hebrew V^ ipha, from which it is 
but slightly altered, it would seem, more properly, to 
mean " light," as addressed to the sun, of whose motion 
the verb a/n(j)i(dij5r)Kug, in the preceding line, is also cha- 
racteristic : to this interpretation may be objected the 
presence of the word in such phrases as l<j>i fidx^Oai, 
but, here too, the new meaning is applicable, in the 
sense of afi(j>a<)6v } and in opposition to XaOprj. (Vid. ij. 
243. 

59. 'ArpliSri, vvv a/uLfiE TraXtjUTrXaxOtvrag otu), "A\p 
airovQGT7)Guv. The clearest exposition of the sense of 
these words is afforded by Virgil's parallel, Mn. 2, 175, 
" Omina ni repetant Argis, numenque reducant." We 
know that it was customary with the ancients, when 
the progress of an expedition assumed an unpromising 
aspect, to consult again their oracles, or resort anew 
to their omens ; and to continue to do so until the re- 
sult was favourable. YlXaZuv is literally applied to the 
repulse of a weapon from a shield or armour ; and, in a 
secondary sense, means to send any thing back in the 
direction in which it had come. Agreeably with this 
view I would translate thus : " I would recommend our 
proceeding homeward, (sc. ad omina repetenda,) and 
returning hither again." 

130. Agamemnon, in this speech, seems to allude, 
by the contiguity of the words OzoukeX' and KkiiTTt, to 
the deception practised by the beautiful Achilles in the 
case of Lycomedes' daughter, and to suspect that he 
had suborned Calchas and Chryses, for the purpose of 
obtaining Chryseis for himself. 

250. JVkra $e tqitutohjiv avaoatv. The question 
respecting the age of Nestor is generally supposed to 
be satisfactorily settled, by counting thirty years for 



68 SALEBRjE interpretationum et CRITICS. 

each of the three generations, and fixing his age at 
ninety years, which would not be a very unusual or 
remarkable period of life for a hero to have attained, 
consistently with the use of his mental and physical 
faculties. Bardyllis, king of the Illyrians, and Massi- 
nissa of Numidia, both fought on horseback at that 
age ; and if generations are to be counted at this rate, 
scarcely one even in the present age does not live out 
more than two. The most correct and probable me- 
thod of reckoning, appears to be that of supposing 
Nestor to live two generations, sixty years, after his 
coevals had died away ; which sixty years, added to 
seventy, as a reasonable allowance for the first period, 
would make 130, which would be not an impossible age, 
and yet sufficiently uncommon to call for the notice of 
the poet. 

402. 'EicaToyxeipov. " The Greeks frequently]com- 
bined the symbolical animals, especially in engravings 
upon gems, where we often find the forms of the ram, 
goat, horse, cock, and various others blended into 
one ; so as to form Pantheic compositions signifying 
the various attributes and modes of action of the deity. 
Cupid is sometimes represented wielding the mask of 
Pan, and sometimes playing upon a lyre while sitting 
on the back of a lion ; devices of which the enigmatical 
meaning has been already sufficiently explained. The 
Hindoos, and other nations of the eastern parts of Asia, 
expressed similar combinations of attributes by sym- 
bols loosely connected, and figures unskilfully com- 
posed of many heads, legs, arms, &c, which appear 
from the epithets, hundred-headed, hundred-handed, 
&c, so frequent in the old Greek poets, to have been 
not wholly unknown to them."— R. P. Knight. 

|3. 144. Kv/Liara ficucpa 0aAa<r<x)7C? Hovtov 'Iica- 
pioto. Here itovtqv is not expressing a repetition of 



SALEBK-E INTERPRETATION UM ET CRITICS. 69 

the idea contained in daXaacrrir : the latter term signi- 
fying an excited state of the sea ; the ordinary and na- 
tural state of which is expressed by the former ; thus, 
OaXacrcra i]-)(fi£(T(ja» a. 157; bptvop.ivr\ QaXaaGa, /3. 294. I 
would translate thus, " the long storm-waves of the 
Icarian Sea." 

228. Evr av TTToXieOpov eXwficv. " Whenever we 
take a city." Vide l. 329. 

271. "£l$e Sing elirscTKev. In such phrases as this, 
rig is best interpreted by " many a one," not, as it is 
usually mistranslated, " some one," or, " every one." 

282. Ylpwroi Kai vgtcltol visg ' ' A\aiu)v. Here, npioToi 
appears literally paralleled by " or a prima patrum :" 
(Virg. JEn. 5, 340,) opposing vaTaroi to this, the ver- 
sion will become " the nearest and the most remote," 
the most obvious interpretation; as the object of effect- 
ing silence must, naturally, have been to enable the 
assembled multitude, through its entire extent, to hear. 

303. XQiZa re /ecu irp&iZ?. These words refer to 
the period of the pestilence ; not, as it is sometimes 
supposed, to the time of the rendezvous at Aulis. 

435. MrjK£rt vvv BriO' avOc XzywixzOa. Merely as a 
conjecture, the following translation of these words is 
offered : " Let us be no longer congregated here." 
Xiyofidi for (rvWiyojuai : the usage of the simple for the 
compound verb is frequent in Greek, and not unusual 
even in Latin : " vincere" is, by Horace (Sat. 2, 3), 
used for " convincere ;" by Virgil, " vela legere," for 
" colligere." 

7. 3. A contributor to the Classical Journal says : 
U The flamingos about the Mediterranean draw up in 
lines, and appear, at a distance, so like armed men, as 
to excite an alarm. Such an appearance is sometimes 
seen on the rock of Gibraltar. The monkeys which 
inhabit the rocks may have been the Pygmies." 



70 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

49. 'E| 'AwiriQ yait)g. The part of Greece desig- 
nated the Apian Land, bore, at different and succes- 
sive periods, the names iEgialeia and Peloponesus ; 
which appellatives were, without any question, com- 
memorative of two of its most distinguished monarchs ; 
thus it is perceivable, that analogy favours the deriva- 
tion of the name in the text from that of another illus- 
trious personage, Apis, son of Phoroneus, fourth king 
of Sicyon. The interpretation of u a distant land," is 
unsanctioned by any probability of the Greeks, or any 
other people, when on foreign service, having applied 
this, or any equivalent name, to their native land ; at 
least there appears a greater likelihood of their having 
used a name in which was commemorated a hero of 
high rank in their national chivalry, than so indefinite 
and unpointed a term, as " a distant land." (10.) Ac-" 
cording to Mitford, Apis, son of Phoroneus, and 
nephew of iEgialeus, first rendered the peninsula a 
place of secure habitation, which is an additional argu- 
ment for considering the epithet a proper name. 

59. Kar alaav. iC With judgment," (from Said), 
"divido.") By translating thus, the simile of the axe 
will become intelligible. 

115. 'OAiyrj § i)v a^lg apovpa. Dr. Kennedy says : 
" a^Kjug in sensu x w 9^ seorsum," which I conceive to 
be explainable in this way, that a/jujng, with reference 
to one object, is equivalent to x w P l € referring to two. 

S. 89. ^Aixvfiova. This adjective seems to imply ex- 
cellence in the particular quality which would be most 
naturally expected in the individual in question, and 
this quality is generally specified either by the sub- 
stantive itself, or another adjective attached, as in the 
present case. Vid. a. 92. 

307. The clearest sense of this much debated pas- 
sage appears to be this : Nestor recommends, for the 



SALEBR/E INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 71 

purpose of avoiding confusion, and for the cause spe- 
cified at f. 231, that no man when dislodged from his 
own car, and taking a place in that of another, should 
undertake the management of horses not his own : 
then, eyx £L bpzZacrOu) will mean " let him fix his lance," 
let him become Trapafiarrig, not v,vi6\og. 

£. 87. no7ra/.(w 7t\{]9ovtl loiKiug. The point of re- 
semblance here, which may not be generally perceived, 
is this. Diomed, in not confining himself to either side 
of the plain so as to shew to which party he was at- 
tached, resembles a river, the place of the usual current 
of which is lost when it spreads itself over the plains, 
presenting the appearance of an unbroken sheet of 
water. 

150. 'Ouk IpxofJLtvoig. " Never to return." 

178. XaXaTri] Se Ozov iiri jut) we. "Ewl is here used 
for sttzgti, both verbs follow the conjunction, and the 
version is, " unless, &c, and (unless) the resistless 
anger of a deity is impending." 

487. 'Ai/zto-t \ivov. An evident allusion to the fable 
of Venus and Mars. 

Z. 135. The necessity of mixing wine with water, 
in consequence of the scarcity effected by Lycurgus, is 
thus allegorically alluded to. 

160. This is one of many vestiges of Scripture 
history discoverable in Homer. 

179. Xifiaipav. " The chimaera, of which so many 
whimsical interpretations have been given by the com- 
mentators on the Iliad, seems to have been an emble- 
matical composition of the same class, (i. e. of the 
agents of creation, destruction, and preservation,) veiled, 
as usual, under historic fable, to conceal its meaning 
from the vulgar. It was composed of the forms of the 
goat, the lion and the serpent, the symbols of the ge- 
nerator, destroyer, and preserver; united and ani- 



72 SALEBR^l INTERPRETATTONUM ET CRITICS. 

mated by fire, the essential principle of all the three.** 
— R. P. Knight. 

402. ^Kafiavdpiov. The name Scamandrius, applied 
to the son of Hector, has not necessarily any reference 
to the river Scamander : from II. ■%, 489, it appears that 
the Trojans had, in compliment to Hector, assigned to 
him a domain, as his peculiar property, in commemo- 
ration of which he might have acquired the name Sca- 
mandrius, which, in the Persian language Zameandaer, 
signifies " a lord of the land," and is thus synonymous 
with the other name, Astyanax. 

480. "Enru), Xlyw, &c, with an accusative, signify 
" to speak of," with a dative, " to speak to," tr. " may 
many a one say of him/' &c. 

484. AaKpvosv ysXcKTCKja. A writer in the Classical 
Journal has illustrated a reciprocity between tears and 
laughter : laughter is sometimes the expression of the 
bitterest agony, as tears are the overflowing of joy. 

t). 97. 'AlvoOsv cuvwq. Adverbs in Qev, generally 
local, contain primarily the idea of motion from, sc. 
oikoOsv, 'lXioOev, &c. We find, however, the old gene- 
tive Wev, in which the termination has no local expres- 
sion. It may therefore not be unreasonable to assume, 
that atvoOtv is merely a genitive, following a sup- 
pressed preposition f£, after, the idiom will then be 
explainable thus, eacreTai Awj3rj aivvjg (in a dreadful 
degree) «f£ {after) aivov, i. e. in the English idiom, 
" doubly dreadful ;" or, by rendering the preposition 
in the usual way, the genitive becomes referrible to the 
cause, and the phrase in this way expresses, " an ig- 
nominious reproach from a disgraceful cause." 

260. Nu£ev. This verb always signifies that spe- 
cies of blow, expressed in English by the word thrmt : 
exemplified in the use of the small sword. 

0. 18. 'Setprjv Xi° v <™^' This my thus, sometimes 



SALEBR^E INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 73 

defined to be the u chain of fate," presents an evident 
adumbration of the law of gravity, or attraction, which 
maintains the due relative positions of the several ce- 
lestial bodies. 

i, 25. s( The ancients supposed destruction to be 
merely dissolution ; as creation was merely formation 
(composition) : the power which delivered the particles 
of matter from the bonds of attraction, and broke the 
dicr/uiov 7TEpij5pt6ri ipwrog was, in fact, the destroyer; 
hence the verb Xvcj or Xv/ui, from which it is derived, 
means both ' to free,' and ' to destroy.' " — JR. P. Knight. 

56. 'Ou teXoq tKfo p.vO(*)v. By reAoe fivOwv is most 
correctly understood " the object of our conference." 
And this will agree with the context more evenly than 
the common limitation of juivOiov to Diomed alone, 
who, having merely dissuaded from the adopting the 
measure proposed, had not touched upon the real 
subject of the debate, which required him to recom- 
mend some course to be pursued : it was positive, not 
negative advice, that was called for. 

102. Sto 8' Everett, otti kev apxy- Instances do oc- 
cur, wherein this idiomatic phrase must signify " will 
depend on," (see Dr. Kennedy's note,) but, for the 
sake of connexion, it would seem almost preferable to 
render it " will be reputed yours ;" the Latin verb 
" haberi" may be considered analogous. A general 
rule may be laid down for translating cte after a semi- 
colon for. And this conjunction will precede the ver- 
sion which is now suggested, more connectedly than 
the other. Thus, " it becomes your duty particularly 
to tender your own advice, and to accept and put in 
practice that of another, when his will prompts any to 
counsel for the public welfare : for, whatever measure be 
preferred, will be reputed yours." 

L 



7i SALEBR^E INTERPRETATION UM ET CRITICS. 

\°Z2. TaXavTa. In this age raXavrov appears to 
have signified any large quantity without including the 
idea of any definite weight or amount. Vid. Virg. /En. 
11 Auri eborisque talenta." 

153. Ntarat. If analogy be taken as a guide, sc. 
that of the so-called Ionic third plural perfect passive, 
viarai must be considered a verb, and the sentence 
turned thus : " All these of (i. e. belonging to, in the 
district of,) sandy Pylos are situated near the sea." 

197. 'H <piXoi avdpeg Ikclvztov, rfTi juaXa Xi° £( ^» The 
turbata oratio in this line is, with refined criticism, con- 
sidered by Dr. Kennedy, to be the result of surprise at 
the unexpected arrival of guests, equally unexpected. 
The words will, perhaps, bear this other interpretation : 
" You are welcome, whether you are come through 
friendship, or necessity has sent you :" i. e., Whether 
I am to consider this a mere visit of ceremony, or dic- 
tated by a want of my assistance. 

381. OrifiaQ 'AiyvTTTiag. The opulence of Theba? 
is alluded to in Nahum, iii. 8 ; Jeremiah, xlvi. 25; 
Ezek. xxx. 14; and Genesis, xli. 41, and xlvi. 20, as 
superior even to that of Nineveh. 

404. Aaivog. The laurel temples, in contradis- 
tinction to which the Delphic is thus denominated, 
were perhaps such consecrated bowers as were called 
by the Latins " tesqua." The name Delphi is derived 
from adiX^oi, the brothers Apollo and Bacchus, to 
whom, after Themis, the possession of the oracle is 
said to have descended, (vide Lucan. Phars. 5, 73,) or 
from the obsolete adjective SeXcpog, " lonely." It is 
called at present " Dyesphine." 

405. Ylvdoi. This name, as well as UvOtog, ap- 
plied to Apollo, is derived from ttvOoj. The applica- 
tion of this name to the sun is in accordance with the 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONS! ET CRITICS. 75 

idea of the identity of the agents of production and 
destruction ; the latter influence was supposed to be 
exercised by day, the former by night. 

435. BaXXeai. From a comparison of the passages 
where this phrase occurs, it would seem to express the 
idea, not of " meditating on," but of "being resolved 
upon," it usually bearing the signification " of laying 
up, and retaining in the memory." 

567. IlcuSt Sofxev Oavarov. That part of the history 
of Meleager, which contains the account of the en- 
chanted fire-brand was, it would appear, unknown to 
Homer. That the immortality of the son depended on 
the will of the mother, is certainly implied in the text ; 
but not so immediate an effect of her resentment as 
appears in the common version of the fable. Accord- 
ing to Homer, he lives a considerable time after the 
imprecation. 

615. It has been remarked, that the resolution of 
Achilles to depart for Thessaly is weakened by each 
successive speech ; and, after the last, that of Ajax, he 
is rather disposed to remain, and decline taking any 
part in hostilities, until a regard for private interest 
may compel him. 

675. Miveog. By a collation of the passages in 
which fxivog occurs, it will be found to signify obstinacy, 
resolution, ardor of will, &c. : these being modifications 
of the same idea, will be found variously applicable to 
the following places, II. £. 407, 0. 360, 0. 340, and 
Od. o. 262, r. 493, &c. 

k. 98, KafxaTh) addriKOTeg ifie kcu vttvi\). The most 
idiomatic version appears to be " exhausted by toil and 
sleepiness." To this, the etymology of the participle 
opposes no impediment. The Latin " fatigari somno," 
should leave no doubt ofthe particular sense conveyed 
in V7rv( { ), As far as the idioms of the Greek and Latin 



76 SALEBILE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICJE. 

languages illustrate each other, they should naturally be 
looked upon as our surest guides in interpretation. If 
a$dr)KTOEQ expresses, according to Dr. Butmann's sug- 
gestion, the idea, not of satiety, but of disgust ; the 
translation, in whichever sense vttvi^ be understood, 
will, at least, be awkward. See Glossary, under adw. 

110. 'Aiavra raxvv. This epithet is opposed to 
/usyag, with which the other Ajax is complimented : in 
order to give its entire effect, we should say, in English, 
" Ajax the swift." 

118. 'Avektoq. It may not have occurred to many 
that the phrase " sustinere bellum," employed by Livy, 
is an exact parallel for " XP £L ^ «v£X £tv *" Thus looked 
at, the words of the text will signify " a necessity no 
longer to be deferred." 

151. "Avrnv. "Aloud." 

173. This simile is supposed, by Dr. Kennedy, to 
have been suggested by the feats of itinerant jugglers, 
&c. 

226. MrjTig is the performance, and consequence, 
of what is originated by voog, 

253. Twv dvo jULOipatov, rpirarr] §' in fiolpa \i\si7TTai. 
The commonly alleged inconsistency between the dvo 
juLoipacjv, and Tpirarr] fioipa will be removed by taking 
into account the force of the superlative form of the 
adjective. The version is, "more of the night than two- 
thirds has now gone by, and scarce a third remains." 
See also i. 363, where the force of tpltcitcj is similar, 
sc " on the third day at farthest" 

351. w O(t<tov r liriovpa 7reXovrai. In order that this 
phrase should convey any precise and definite idea of 
distance, it must be assumed that some generally under- 
stood and observed limit did usually determine the 
space to be travelled by oxen when ploughing, on ar- 
riving at the end of which, they were turned round. 



SALEBRjE INTERPRETATION™ ET CRITICS. 77 

Now, the particular point wherein the superiority of 
mules consisted, must have been their proceeding to 
a more remote limit, previously to beginning anew. 
And the conjecture here advanced is, that this space, 
from end to end, not that 'particular portion by which 
the length of the furrow was increased in the case of the 
mules > is that designated twiovpa: if the latter space had 
been intended, it could not have been such a distance, 
as when diminished by the running of the two Greeks, 
v. 355, would have been altogether, or very nearly equal 
to a spear's-cast, v. 357. 

505. *H ItcQipoi v\p6<r cieipag. It is perceptible from 
the phrases here used respecting the driving, &c. of 
the horses/that Diomed did actually bring the chariot 
with him, the words "nnrwv hirzfi{]<jaTo are those com- 
monly applied to mounting a chariot, and at /jlckjtlZs §' 
'linrovQ it is observable that, had each ridden one of the 
horses to the camp, one would not have driven the two ; 
from line 526, sq. also it would appear that Ulysses re- 
mained in the car, while Diomed descended to hand 
him the trophy. 

A. 28. Tipag fx^poirwy avOptoircov. This passage, of 
which the most obvious prima facie version is, " a 
token to speech-gifted mortals ;" and appears like an 
allusion to the Mosaic account of the origin of the 
rainbow, presents, if so translated with a genitive case, 
an irregular syntax. N avri^ai ripag occurs in II. e, sig- 
nifying " a token to mariners." In the fourth line of 
this book, TToXi/jLoio ripag is " an emblem of war ; it 
would appear, then, receivable to translate these words 
" an emblem of mortality :" though I do not remember 
any classical parallel for a simile of the weakness of 
man to the evanescent nature of the Iris ; it is not yet 
either unpoetic or untrue. 

51. <E>0av S£ fnO' iTnrriwv tn\ Ta<j)pto KO<T[xr)0£vTzg. The 



78 SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONS! ET CRITICS. 

most natural version of this line, usually stigmatized 
by a character of difficulty, appears to be, " they were 
arrayed at the trenches simultaneously with the ca- 
valry, and forming the van (fyOav) ; for ($1 after a semi- 
colon) the cavalry followed closely." 

137. MetXtxioig apeikiKTov. The latter of these 

adjectives is not, as will be readily perceived, a nega- 
tion of the former; the first being, in signification, 
active; the latter, passive : the one signifying " calcu- 
lated to persuade," the other, " on which the desired 
effect had not been produced." Of the many trans- 
lations which occur, I would select " persuasive" and 
" unrelenting :" the words literally mean " softening" 
and " unsoftened." 

174. 'Anrvg 6\e0pog. The primary signification of 
aiirvg is high ; thence, in its secondary meaning, " in. 
accessible," "immoveable ,•" and lastly, as here, " cer- 
tain" " inevitable ." 

493. Aibg oiifipy, n excessive rain," synonymous 
with hpog 6/iifdpog, (comp. Kvicpag hpov :) this idiom is 
paralleled by " the cedars of God," i. e., tall cedars. 

557. r £lg & or ovog. It has been remarked, that 
in the similes of Homer and Virgil, a minute corres- 
pondence in every particular is not to be looked for. 
The reluctance to move is, in this case, the only point 
of resemblance. 

603. ^laog lipyfi. The particular of similitude here 
is the speed and earnestness with which Patroclus 
obeys the call of Achilles. 

653. Ta^a. Viger remarks on this word, that raxa 
is an adverb of time, " quicldy ;" Ta^a, a conjunction, 
"perhaps ,*" but that this distinction is not observed in 
Homer. This instance may probably form an exception : 
the use of the words " soon" and " perhaps" as syno- 
nyms, is a familiar idiom, or vulgarism, in our own 
language. 



SALEBRJE INTERPRETATIONS! ET CRITICS. 79 

761. "Elttot ir\v ye. The most idiomatic interpre- 
tation, as well as the most suited to the context, of this 
phrase is, " would that I were so still." See Hoogeveen 
on the usage of this conjunction. There is, however, 
in the common version, "if such could ever have been," 
a delineation of a very natural feeling. — There are few 
to whom some scenes of the past, when conjured up 
and contrasted with the present, do not appear like 
illusions of the memory. 

ju. 209. Aibg repag aiyioxpto. Agreeably with what 
has been remarked above (X. 28) on the idiomatic 
usage of rtpag, this phrase should signify " the emblem 
of Jupiter." Among the nations of the East, particu- 
larly the Egyptians, the attributes of the Deity were 
represented under the forms of a serpent variously 
modified. The popularity of this idolatry appears to 
have suggested to Moses his use of the emblem, 
though indeed, the serpent was considered by the 
Jews generally a type of the evil spirit, precisely be- 
cause all other nations believed it to be an adumbration 
of the opposite influence. 

212. 'Ovde Teolkb. "It does not accord with your 
notions of propriety." 

231. 'Ou»c It. "Etl is not here an adverb of time ; 
the phrase is but a strong negative, as Virg. 2 JEu. 
" nunquam omnes hodie moviemur multi." 

255. QeXye voov. The idea contained in the verb 
OeXyoi, is that expressed passively by the word " spell- 
bound" 

258. Kpoaaai, on the towers — lirdX^eig, on the walls 
— GTrikm, in the trenches. 

431. "A7ro. Like the Latin «, signifies here, " on 
the side of" e regione. 

v. 122. 'A(Sc5, for friends ; vefxeaiv, for enemies. 

128. Aaorrcroog, Xaov croovaa, i. e. (rofiovaa, incihins. 



80 3ALEBR,E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

236. Si/jU^epr?) o° aperri irzXei avdpivv, kol fxaXa \v~ 
ypiov. " The efforts of men, however (individually) 
feeble, become valor when united." 

260. 'EvwTna. The customary stand for spears 
among the Greeks, was, in the recesses of fluted pillars, 
to represent which, we frequently see these flutings 
filled up to about one-third of the height of the column, 
Vid.Od. a. 127. 

706. 'Efjoya, " keeps them in their places." The im- 
position of the yoke tended to keep together as well as 
separate them. The phrase may also perhaps signify, 
from the proximity of h/mivco, to which it will then be 
opposed, " impedes their progress." 

734. Ma\i(TTa $e k clvtoq aviyvu). These words 
contain an obvious expression of resentment, that his 
prescience was not usually appreciated by Hector. 

754. "O/oet vi<f>6zvTi loiKtog. The point of resemblance 
here is, most probably, that both are remotely con- 
spicuous. 

830. AeipioevTa. This epithet is designative of color, 

£. 18. "Avto)q, ic without cause." The phenomenon 
here alluded to, is that technically called a " ground- 
swell," visible when that part of the sea, agitated by 
the wind, communicates its motion to another region, at 
which the wind has not yet arrived. 

141. "Ou ol ivi (pptveg, " he has no feeling," (hu- 
manity, consideration.) 

392. 'EkXvgOti §1 OaXacTGa. The idea contained in 
this line forms an ingredient in the conception of ter- 
ror and wildness, composed of, and heightened by, the 
grouping of similar images in the following lines. 

o-. 117. Bir] 'HpcucAr/oc. The knowledge of him ap- 
pears to have come into Europe, through Thrace : he 
was worshipped in Thasos by the Phoenician colony 
there planted, about five generations before the birth 



SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITIC.E. 81 

of the Theban hero, who was distinguished by the same 
name. In the Homeric age he appears to have been 
utterly unknown to the Greeks ; the Hercules of the 
Iliad and Odyssey being a mere man ; preeminently 
distinguished indeed for strength and valour, but ex- 
empt from none of the laws of mortality. His original 
symbolical arms, with which he appears on the most 
ancient medals of Thasos, were the same with those of 
Apollo ; and his Greek name, which, according to the 
most probable etymology, signifies " the glorifier of the 
earth," is peculiarly applicable to the sun. The Romans 
held him to be the same as Mars. 

398. eing V vireSlgaro koAtto). The legend of the 
fall of Vulcan into the sea, appears like a vestige of 
one of the mystic fables of Eastern mythology, which 
represented in various mythi physical phenomena : that 
which seems to be revived here, contains the adumbra- 
tion of the production of life, from the combined action 
of heat and moisture. 

(t. 570. Aivov S' vtto KaXbv aside. " The string 
pleasingly accorded with his delicate (tenor) voice." 
Among the specimens of Greek music which have 
come down to us are three hymns, addressed seve- 
rally to Calliope, Apollo, and Nemesis, attributed to 
Dionysius : they were published from a manuscript in 
the possession of Cardinal St. Angelo, at Rome, by 
Vincent Galileo, in his discourse on ancient and mo- 
dern music, printed at Florence in 1581. Burette re- 
printed them in 1720, with modern notes, from a Greek 
manuscript in the Royal Library at Paris. A fourth 
fragment was discovered by Kircher in a Sicilian mo- 
nastery; it contained eight lines of the first Pythian 
of Pindar, written (according to Alypius) in Lydian 
characters. The music is simple, and runs through 
only six notes, a proof that its composition was antique, 

M 



H2 SALEBBLE INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 

at least previous to the invention of the heptachord 
lyre. 

590. Xopbv. The Egyptians were the first who 
invested the dance with that character of sublimity 
which has entitled it to the praises of poets and philo- 
sophers : the inventors of a mystic language, the sym- 
bols of which still grace their venerable monuments, 
they made their dances too, hieroglyphic representa- 
tions of actions. They composed on a model of grave 
solemnity their serious dances, whereof the figures 
represented the revolutions of the stars, and the un- 
changing order and harmony of the universe. With 
them it was ever connected with religious ceremonies. 
They instituted in honour of Apis (the sun), one which 
expressed their sorrow r for his absence and joy for his 
return. Among the Greeks, Orpheus was the inventor 
of sacred dances, or, rather he was the first, who, 
having introduced into his own country a form of cere- 
monious worship, ventured to consecrate to the cul- 
ture of the Deity, the expression of pleasure. To the 
familiar dances of his youth, he added evolutions bor- 
rowed from the priests of Sais or Colchis. The sublime 
harmony of his lyre impressed on the minds of his people 
the lofty truths which his genius matured and revealed. 
In the course of time, the Greeks, charmed with the 
order and harmony which these dances created, in 
their religious observances, made them to constitute a 
part of ceremonies into which they were less admissible, 
namely, their dramatic representations. Mr. Knight 
says : — " Dancing was a part of the ceremonial in all 
mystic rites. The ancient Indians paid their devotions to 
the Sun, in a dance imitative of his motions, which they 
performed every morning and evening, and which was 
their only act of worship. In Greece, the Cnosian dances 
were peculiarly sacred to Jupiter, as the Nyssian were to 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETAT10NU3VI ET CRITICS. 83 

Bacchus, both of which were under the direction of 
Pan, who, being the principle of universal order, par- 
took of the nature of all the other gods ; they being 
personifications of particular modes of acting of the 
great all-ruling principle ; and he, of his general law 
of preestablished harmony ; whence upon an ancient 
earthen vase of Greek workmanship, he is represented 
playing on a pipe, between two figures, a male and 
female ; over the latter of which is written N0022, 
and over the former AAKOS, while he himself is dis- 
tinguished by the title MOAKOS; so that this compo- 
sition explicitly shews him in the character of universal 
harmony, resulting from mind and strength, these titles 
being, in the ancient dialect of Magna Grascia, where 
the vase was found, the same as vovr, ciXkyj, and ji6\tty\. 
The ancient dancing, however, which held so high a 
rank among liberal and sacred arts, was entirely imita- 
tive, and esteemed honourable, or otherwise, in propor- 
tion to the dignity or indignity of what it was meant to 
express. The highest was that which exhibited military 
exercises and exploits, with the most perfect skill, 
grace, and agility, excellence in which was often 
honoured by a statue in some distinguished attitude, 
and it is highly probable, that the figure commonly 
called ' the fighting gladiator,' is one of these." 

r. 130. A version of the fable of Pandora's box. 

223. "A/irjroc §' bXiyiGTog. The first of these words 
being proparoxyton signifies not " the harvest," but 
u the harvest-tfi/wtf / the sentence then illustrates the 
at\pa in v. 221. Thus, " Soon comes a cloy of the con- 
flict, whereof the sword strews upon the earth abundant 
haulm, but the harvest-time is short, once Jupiter, &c, 
that is, tJds exercise of the sword cannot be long con- 
tinued. 

312. rip-KovTic. The present participle signifies 



84 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

merely the endeavour. The same idea is conveyed by 
Virgil in " lenibat," JEn. 6, 467. 

v. 7. Noa^ d)Kzavoio. " Caussam comminiscitur Sch. 
br. ne per suam auctoritatem, 7rpe(7J5i)Tarog vTrapx<*)v, 
obstet certamini Deorum. Diversam interpretationem 
video in paraph, s£co rou wk. h. e. loco, situ. At mimine 
trepidandum est, cum poetae liceat figmenta sua, prout 
visum fuerit, variare." — Dr. Kennedy. 

155. "Okveov. "Okvqq, only in a secondary signifi- 
cation, means " reluctance, fear :" it primarily signifies 
" a heron ;" this bird was considered an ill omen, and 
such, of course, caused the intermission or abandon- 
ment of any enterprise. 

164. Aeojv wg aivrrjg, sq. " As a predatory lion, 
which the assembled multitude, an entire district, de- 
sign to slay ; he, at first contemptuously, advances, 
till some ardent youth wounds him with a lance, when, 
open-mouthed, he crouches for a spring : foam mantles 
his teeth, and his dauntless spirit vents the audible 
fury of his breast ; he lashes with his tail his sides and 
haunches, and goads himself to the combat ; with 
flashing eye he bounds ahead in his rage, to rend his 
human foe, or fall among the foremost of the crowd." 

202. 'Hjuev KepTojaiag tjS' atavXa. Here atcrvXa and 
K^pTo/uiag do not contain a repetition of the same idea. 
"AivvXa is not derived from aicrav avXav: the final syl- 
lables are merely an adjective termination as Ka/u7rvXog. 
A similar opposition occurs in v. 255, zrea kcu ovkI. The 
usage of the word in <p. 214, &c, is not inconsistent 
with this view. The adjective, I would say, means 
"portentous" "great" "wonderful. 9 * And I would 
translate the two terms thus, " invectives and vaunts.'* 

298. Ma\p svsk aXXorpiwv ayiuv. u In a vain en- 
deavour to avert the woes of others :" this use of £W« 
does not require illustration. 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 85 

306. "HSrj yap, sq. In this sentence, from 6v to 
Qvriravv inclusive, is parenthetic ; there is also an ellip- 
sis, thus, " that the family of Dardanus may not, &c, as 
may be naturally anticipated, for Jupiter, &c." 

497. Aettt lyivovro, i. e. XeTrrovrai, antique. 

(j). 12. 'Ak-ptSec. It is still the practice of the Asi- 
atics on the approach of a cloud of locusts, to set fire 
to such of the crops or plantations, in their way, as 
are combustible ; and, by sacrificing a part, to save the 
rest. 

45. This use of a dative for a genitive, is called by 
philologists " colophonism." 

50. 'OuS 1 f'x £v £yx°c> " ne na d not even a lance," 
ouSs is literally " ne quidem," though its Latin deri- 
vative is " haud." 

72. "la from lew ; 7ei from trj/xt. 

104. The quantity of the penultima of IXlov in this 
line is unusual; the interposition of F accounts for it, 
i'XtF-ou, iXtoFo. Vid. infra, " on syllabic quantity." 

131. Tavpovg — 'linrovQ. One of the most ancient 
sacrificial customs of the Greeks was offering the lives 
of oxen and horses to their river-gods ; the former, as 
their voices or horns represented the sound or form 
of their streams ; the latter, as their speed was emble- 
matic of that of the rivers. 

276. <P.tArj. <PtXoc, in Greek poetry, signifies nothing 
more, in such cases as the present, than " meus, tuus, 
suus." 

295. I would suggest as the syntax of this line, 
Trplv kXvto. rslxn 'iXiou KariXdat Xabv. " Ere the walls 
of Troy enclose its forces." 

303. HpoodiGGovTOQ av lOvv poov. " Against the 
headlong torrent." 

X- 126. 'A7to cpvog, sq. On these words Mr. Bry- 
ant remarks, that " Pator" was a title of the sun, which 



86 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 

in Greek became Trarrjp and irirpoq ; hence 7T£rpa, in 
its primary meaning signifies " a temple of the Sun," 
which was everywhere a sanctuary. Oak trees, too, 
sacred to Jupiter, (hence called Sar-o?i } ) were indued 
with a similar sanctity. Of the same import are the 
words " Colonos" and " Colone," derived from Col-on, 
" Solis ara." 

173. Uipi, "near." " Under (along) the walls 
of Troy." Virgil's " Circum muros," is not Homeric, 
but due to a Cyclian poet. 

203. Uvfxarov te kol vgtcltov. " In his extremity 
and for the last time." If one may presume " to paint 
the lily, and throw a perfume on the violet," I would 
almost say that a tautology of vorarov would sound 
more pathetic, " for the last last time." 

214. rXavKuwig. M. Gail's translation of this epi- 
thet in his " Essai sur les prepositions Grecs," is " Mi- 
nerve aux yeux penetrans." The reason why the owl 
was consecrated to Minerva was its clear and pene- 
trating sight. This was particularly the case at Athens, 
where owls were so common, that they may have been 
seen flying about even in the day-time. The interpre- 
tation of the epithet, as referring to color, is of as 
recent a date as the age of the Ptolemies. A temple 
was erected by Diomede to this goddess, under the 
name of 'AOrivri o^vStptcriG. Her worship was introduced 
into Greece by Cecrops, (cotemporary with Moses,) 
borrowed from that of the Egyptian Neith, of whose 
name, that of the Greek deity is a modification. 

270. y 'A(j>ap, " instantly." To suppose that this 
word is ever an adverb of time is an error. Vide 
Glossary. 

317. f OToc $ f aoTrip IXaif sq. ** As Hesperus, the 
fairest star enthroned in heaven, moves amid other 
stars at dead of night, so flashed the lance's head," &c. 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 87 

351. XpvGq £pv<ra<jOai. Mr. Knight conceives the 
nearest advance made in the Homeric age to an issue 
of coins of specific value, to have been masses of un- 
refined ore, some of which are still extant, weighing 
about 260 grains. Of fourteen of these seen by him, 
only one is marked, and with SI, the initial of ^ifyviuv , 
the inhabitants of an island rich in gold mines. These 
coins are probably such as the KpoiatloL crrarripEQ of 
Pollux, on the model of which the Persian Darics were 
afterwards struck of refined gold, first used in coin by 
Darius, son of Hystaspes ; the large Darics were about 
the weight above stated, the small about half. To 
these succeeded the (TraTrjpeg of the Asiatics, the 
Philippi (Philip-pieces) of the Macedonians, and the 
golden coins of other nations in succession down to the 
Roman aurei, French Louis, and English guineas. 
All nearly equalled in weight the Persian half-darics, 
though of different degrees of purity. All the Greek 
coins were various submultiples of the Homeric talent, 
which, for mercantile purposes was so divided, that 
coins were struck, each one 130th part of its value. The 
talentum vetus of four drachmas is mentioned by writers 
on this subject, which can hardly be any other than 
the Homeric talent and Lydian stater. In like manner 
the silver coins of the Italians and Sicilians were, by 
weight, classified into talents, minae, and nummi ; 
brazen coins also, which among the Tuscans and 
Latins, who borrowed them from the Italian Greeks, 
were originally cast, and not struck ; their respective 
weights, however, varied among different tribes. The 
coins of the other Greeks were named not from weight 
but number, consisting of bars or oboli, of brass or 
iron, of such a size that a man's hand could close on 
six of them, hence the name SpaxfJirj, of a silver coin 
equal in value to six oboli ; but the Attic mina?, and 



88 SALEBILE INTEIiPRETATIONUM ET CRITICAL. 

the Attic Eubcean and JEginetic talents were weights. 
The .ZEginetic silver oboli and drachmae were larger 
than the Eubcean and Attic ; and it is perceivable 
from coins still extant, that the former circulated 
through the cities of Peloponesus, Bceotia, and Phocis; 
the latter through the rest of Greece. The drachmae 
of iEgina, when perfect, weighed about 95 grains ; the 
double drachmae, 190; those of Athens and Alexander 
the Great, 65 ; the double, which are scarce, about 130. 
If the authority of Strabo and the Parian marbles be 
trustworthy, Phido, king of Argos, first established a 
silver mint at /Egina, 1369 b. c. ; but Herodotus, per- 
haps more justly, claims the invention for the Lydians. 
The statement of Plutarch respecting coin struck by 
Theseus marked with an ox, is at variance with every 
thing known of history and antiquities ; for, even in the 
Homeric age, long after Theseus, if that hero did ever 
exist, the art was altogether unknown; cattle and not 
metals, were then the measure of value. Gold, as may 
be expected, was coined before silver, or brass, being, 
in that age, more easily procured and more malleable. 
On the most ancient marked coins are impressed reli- 
gious cabalistic symbols, lions, rams, fishes, &c., from 
which it may be inferred, that the Greek settlers 
learned both the symbols and the art from the aborigi- 
nal Asiatics, about 1000 b. c. 

859, sq. It need scarcely be remarked, that the be- 
lief in the prophetic character of " last words" was a 
general and favourite superstition of the ancients. 

441. 'Ev §£ Opova 7roiKi\ £7rao-o-£. " With an em- 
broidery of rare flowers." A scholiast on Theocritus 
says, that Opova signified among the Thessalians " tex- 
tile figures of aniioals;" with the Cyprians, " embroi- 
dered garments ;" with the iEtolians, " vegetable 
drugs ;" and in Homer, " roses" Another scholiast ex- 



SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 89 

plains it by IprraMg fioTavag. " Antipharmaca," is 
Heyne's interpretation. It would appear that the 
scholiast on Theocritus understood by it what we call 
"flowered work" " Arabesque;' " Moresque" &c. The 
phrase altogether would seem to indicate a more im- 
proved state of the arts of embroidery and colouring 
than was attained by the Greeks of a later period ; but 
Heyne supposes the barbarism of the Dorians to have 
effaced, on their occupation of Peloponesus, all cha- 
racteristics of refinement. 

466. Ti)v Bl kcit bfyQaXfidyv, sq. " Darkness gathered 
heavily around her eyes, she sank backward, and sighed 
away her senses ; far from her head she cast her costly 
head-gear, her fillet, her net, her braided hair-band ; 
and that veil which the bright Venus gave her, on the 
day when her plumed Hector brought her from the 
palace of Heetion." 

474. ' ArvZofxhriv cnroXidOai. "Terrified to death." 
The following lines are much admired for their ex- 
pression by Quinctilian. 

\p. 75. Abg rriv x £ 'i°> oXoQvpofiai, " Give me thy 
hand, that I may weep farewell ;" understand 'Iva, and 
change the modal vowel. 

82. Kat l$i]<jopai. " I will impress it on you;" 
" will urge my request." 

92. ' An^optvg. " Amphora, diota" The propor- 
tions for the most part observed in ancient architecture, 
&c, were those of the (perfect) human body: thus, 
the first columns were colossal statues, previously to 
the date assigned to the legend of the Caryatides ; and 
the breadth of the pediment subsequently continued to 
be one-sixth of the height of the column ; the proportion 
of the length of the human foot to the height of the 
body. The antique urn, too, represents the outline 
of the posterior or anterior view of the human head ; 

N 



90 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 

the handles (hence called ovara) occupying the places 
of the ears. The potter's wheel, the art of modelling 
clay, and painting, were invented at Corinth about 
700 b. c. — the most beautifully shaped and painted 
earthen vases have been found at Nola, Locri, and 
Agrigentum. To the sentiment expressed in this and 
the foregoing line, we find a parallel in Fletcher's Elder 
Brother, 3-5: 

" One age go with us, and one hour of death 

Shall close our eyes, and one grave make us happy." 

258. "lZavev Ivpvv ayiova. The Olympic games are 
said to have been instituted, on the plan laid down by 
Homer, by Iphitus, king of Elis. The Pythian festi- 
val, the institution of which was ante-Homeric, was 
confined, originally, to a musical contest, the subject of 
which was a hymn in honour of Apollo : 

ak h' aoidog t%(ov (pofifjiiyya Xiyeiav 

'Hdv£7n]Q 7Tpu>Tov Tt leal vararov auv deideu—Hymn. Apoll. 

307. r Iir7ro<Tvvag Idlda^av iravroiag. On one of the 
vases in Mr. Millingen's " Collection of ancient unedited 
Monuments," is represented a racing-chariot, to which 
the horses appear yoked like oxen, without reins or 
harness, their collars (X6ra§i/a) being attached to the 
yoke, placed at right angles on the end of the pole ; 
the driver holding a long wand, from the end of which 
are suspended two small rattles, intended by their 
jingling noise to improve the speed of the horses. 
Bells were afterwards used for the same purpose. In 
like manner the Numidian cavalry never used bridles, 
guiding their horses by a wand and the voice. On 
another vase in the same collection appears the chariot 
of Achilles, also without traces ; in which manner the 
chariots of the ancient Persians were likewise repre- 
sented. The only allusion in Homer to the practice of 



SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 91 

riding horses is in II. o. 680, sq. The Amazons are 
almost invariably represented on horseback. 

421. BaOvvs Se x^9 0v airavTa. "And made the 
place, throughout, a precipice." 

758. Total §' a7ro v\)G(jy)Q tztcito Spofiog. " Their 
velocity increased with their distance from the post." 

832. MaAa iroXXov airoTrpoOi, " of wide extent." 

871. 'Oiorov c'x £v nakai, wg Wvvev. " But his arrow 
he was long since holding, when he had once given it 
its aim." This use of <hg is not uncommon. 

w. 29. Ne(tc£<T<re, " slighted." 

157. "A^jOwv, acTKOirog, aAtrrj/xwv. The first of these 
epithets signifies an incapability of foreseeing con- 
sequences ; the second, a disregard of those conse- 
quences, when foreseen ; and the third, a contempt of 
moral obligations : " he will not be prevented by in- 
sensibility, temerity, or impiety" 

271. Kal rb filv, sq. " This they bound firmly on 
the polished pole, at its outer extremity, and inserted 
the hook into the ring, thrice they wound it on the 
centre-curve at either side, and then on the rest (of 
the yoke), and turned in the ends." 

347. Kovptp aKTVfxvriTripi loticwg. " Like a youth of 
high rank." Vid. Eurip. Medea. 19. 

544. "Oo-o-ov Aiafiog avto. "All that Lesbos, the 
seat of Makar, contains within it upward, and Phrygia, 
and the wide Hellespont from above (downward)." The 
kingdom of Priam extended (geometrically speaking) 
from the locus of Lesbos on the south, to the Helles- 
pont on the north, i. e. from the river CEsepus, the 
limit, in after times, of the Cyzicene territory, down 
to the promontory of Lectus opposite Lesbos : it was 
bounded on the east by Ida, and west by the iEgean, 
and comprehended nine subordinate principalities. 



92 SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 



THE TWENTY-FOURTH ILIAD. 

The continuity of the twenty-fourth Iliad with the 
other twenty-three, has been questioned by Iensius, and, 
of course, Zoilus. The reasons adduced by the former 
are at least, prima facie, imposing; he remarks that its 
mythological allusions indicate a more recent era of 
fable than those in the preceding rhapsodies : in this 
Mercury is employed as a messenger by Jupiter, and 
the legends of Niobe(ll) and the Soiol 7tWol of divine 
dispensations occur ; which, when examined, prove no- 
thing : in every separate rhapsody occurs some mytho- 
logical allusion peculiar to that which it is intended to 
decorate ; as the golden chain, the fall of Vulcan, the 
punishment of Ate, &c. It will be perceived that Iris 
here, as elsewhere, fills her customary office of mes- 
senger, v. 144, and that Mercury is employed merely 
in his mercurial, his kleptical capacity. The other ob- 
jection is founded on the assumed improbability of 
Priam venturing clandestinely into the Grecian camp, 
and an embassy is suggested as a natural preliminary ; 
which would, nevertheless, have been the most im- 
probable of all possible proceedings. The expedient 
of a visit to the Grecian camp could have been the 
result only of a sudden impulse. Objections have been 
also started on the ground of the languor and weakness 
of the language, and the violation of the unity of action ; 
but these have been dictated by an imperfect consider- 
ation of the nature of the action of the a>. and its tend- 
ency ; the diction requiring pathos rather than energy, 
and the continuation of the action of the poem having 
for its object the aggrandizement of the hero. Heyne, 
in his justification of such a closing scene, has fallen 
into the error of supposing that an epic poem should 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 93 

necessarily leave no strong impression on the reader's 
mind, forgetting that the excitement of sympathy is 
seldom proportioned to the turbulence of the scene 
witnessed or delineated. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ODYSSEY. 



I translate part of the ninth section of Longinus de 
Subl., relating to Homer. " You will not, perhaps., 
my friend, deem me prolix if I lay before you one 
other passage of the poet relating to the affairs of men ; 
that you may perceive how he is wont to rise with his 
heroes to their valorous deeds. A sudden gloom and in- 
explicable darkness overspreads the host of the Greeks ; 
then Ajax in his distress prays: ' Jupiter! father! do 
thou at least extricate the sons of the Greeks from 
this gloom — restore the clearness of day- — grant to our 
eyes their vision, and in the light, e'en destroy us. ? 
Here is in truth the feeling of an Ajax ; he does not 
petition for safety, (that would be a request beneath 
the dignity of a hero,) but conscious that, in the torpid 
gloom, he could exert his valour in no glorious exploit, 
with a feeling of indignation at being incapacitated for 
the combat, he prays for the speediest return of light, 
sure to find at least a death-shroud worthy of his 
heroism ; though Jove himself be marshalled against 
him. But it is Homer who here breathes his inspira- 
tion into the strife, and is moved by no other affection 
than * the frenzy of Mars, the wielder of the lance,' or 
• of the devouring fire raving in the thickets of the 



94 SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

deep forest,' and ' the foam mantles his teeth.' He 
shows, however, in the Odyssey, (for I feel these addi- 
tional observations for many reasons necessary,) that 
the characteristic of exalted genius on its ebb, is a 
fondness for fable : for it is evident from other reasons, 
that this composition was posterior to the other, as well 
as from the incidental mention of the Ilian calamities, 
as so many episodes of the Trojan war, and from his 
having herein discharged the debt of those sorrows 
and scenes of woe to which he had, as it were, long 
since foredoomed his heroes. The Odyssey is nought 
save a continuation of the Iliad, ' for there lies the 
martial Ajax, there Achilles, there too Patroclus, in 
wisdom equal to a God, and there my own darling 
son ;' and, for the same cause, I take it, the whole 
structure of the Iliad, written in the vigour of his 
genius, he constituted interlocutory and full of action ; 
while the greater part of the Odyssey is narrative, (the 
peculiarity of old age,) hence one may compare the 
Homer of the Odyssey to the setting sun, whose ma- 
jesty, divested of his meridian intensity, still remains: 
for he does not here sustain the same freshness of 
thought which pervades the Ilian poems, the same uni- 
form and undepressed sublimity, the same outpouring 
of continuous feeling, nor the same versatile and ora- 
torical power of expression, thronged with a luxuriant 
clustering of images drawn from nature ; but, like the 
ocean ebbing to its former level, and sinking within 
its proper limits, so the reflux of receding grandeur 
evinces itself in legendary and fabulous aberrations. 
But, when I say this, I do not forget the tempests 
of the Odyssey, the descriptions of the Cyclops, and 
some other subjects. I speak indeed of old age, but 
still the old age of a Homer: in all these, however, 
the narrative invariably predominates over the action. 



SALEBR.E INTERPRET ATIONUM ET CRITICS. 95 

I have, as I already observed, entered into this di- 
gression to shew that native sublimity, on its decline, 
sometimes deviates into spiritless loquacity ; for in- 
stance, in the accounts of the wind-bag and the trans- 
formation into swine by Circe, which Zoilus has styled 
squeaking porkets, the circumstances of Jupiter having 
been reared as a nestling by the doves, and of the per- 
son fasting ten days after a shipwreck, with the incre- 
dible details of the massacre of the suitors : of such, 
what could one say, but that they are in reality the 
dreams of a God. There is yet another reason why 
the Odyssey should form a subject for study ; that you 
may perceive, that the decline of a vigorous imagina- 
tion in great historians and poets, weakens itself into a 
delineation of morals ; for such, in some degree, are 
those passages which form the picture of tranquil life, 
sketched by him in the palace of Ulysses, and may be 
deemed a species of comedy, the transcript of human 
manners." 

Odyssey, a. 2. Jltpbv TrroXUOpov. The adjectives 
hpbg, qgloq, Stocj OeGTrlviog, &c, being poetically em- 
ployed to express the excess of any thing over others 
of the same kind in size, magnificence, &c. ; these 
words may be translated " the magnificent or imperial 
city." 

20. 'A<jTTEp\lg fxEVEatvsv. " Entertained an enduring 
grudge against," &c; the obvious etymology of the 
adverb suggests the idea of slowness and permanent 
durability. 

35. 'Yttzp nopov, " unjustifiably." 

71. Ku/cXw7T£(TC7i. It is, perhaps, superfluous to re- 
peat the ingenious solution of the fable of the one-eyed 
Cyclops, sc, that they first wore vizors on their hel- 
mets, permitting the use of the eyes, through one oval 
transverse aperture, or, that they were the constructors 



96 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITICS. 

of lofty round towers, admitting the light through a 
single window at the top; which would account for 
their imputed stature, as well as for the other peculi- 
arity. These towers are said, by Mr. Bryant, to have 
exhibited in this aperture a perennial fire, they being 
dedicated to the worship of the Sun. 

127. Vid. Virgil Mn. 12, 92; and the remark on 
II. v. 260, supra. 

183. T£jti£cn?v. The most probable geography of 
Temesa is that of its having been in Cyprus. Cyprian 
brass was celebrated among the ancients. 

262. Toue xP ia(J @ al ' This practice does not receive 
the same censure from Virgil as here. Vid. JEu. 9, 773. 
The virus of the dead body of a viper is said to have 
been used for the medicinal purpose alluded to. 

320. 'AvoTrcuct. To interpret avoiraia to signify a 
species of hawk, would be to introduce into Homer a 
tautology for which no parallel can be found in cases 
where similar appearances of birds are mentioned. The 
only instance in point is fiovg ravpog, in II. j3. 

359. Tov yap Kparog ear ivl oucq. To perceive the 
connexion between this and the preceding sentences, 
from /uLvOog to l/uol, inclusive, must be considered paren- 
thetic ; and, thus it will immediately succeed 'ipyov 
liroix^Oai, tr. " for to that alone your domestic author- 
ity extends." It will be perceived, by its accent, that 
the pronoun is emphatic. Vid. iEschylus, Sept. c. 
Theb. 206. 

414. "Our bvv. " I will not, therefore;' &c. Vid. 
Eustath. 

425. The syntax is 60c av\i } g. 

j3. 7. 'AyopijvSs, The Athenian ^kkXiictiu is said to 
have been formed on the model of the Homeric popular 
assembly. Both were probably fashioned after the 
corresponding feature of the ancient Cretan constitution. 



SALEBR/E interpretation™ et critics. 97 

60. ^H teal ETrsira. Madame Dacier, taking from ^ 
to iao/ueOa incl. as parenthetic, translates " Mais il 
viendra un jour, que je leur paroitrai terrible ;" but 
this would require a slight alteration in the reading: 
the conjunction te interferes, and the improbability of 
kcu 6v being apodotic to 6u, opposes another impedi- 
ment. It would therefore seem preferable to consider 
the passage as an admission of inability, preparatory 
to the declaration in the following line, which, in its 
turn, palliates the confession. 

169. "A^ap. Observe the interpretation of this line 
by Eustathius referring aQap to the verb, " that this 
be done immediately." 

199. 'ApyaXzriQ, " wearisome." 

203. 'OuSsVor l<ra iWsrai. " Jamais l'ordre ne sera 
retabli." — Madame Dacier. 

230. Upocppwv, " generous, 5 ' in conferring favours ; 
ay avog, " conciliating," in general deportment ; rimog, 
" mild," in pardoning offences. 

233. Mifivrirai, " is grateful." As Hor. Graecia 
memor. 

7. 96. MqSl tl fi aido/jievog, sq. <( Do not, from 
delicacy, or compassion, mitigate the truth." 

184. 'AwevO fa, " uninformed," "in ignorance ;" the 
passive form is clttvgtoq. 

227. "Ou7rw tovto £7toc, sq. " I cannot expect that 
this prediction may ever be fulfilled — you have alluded 
to an arduous exploit — I am lost in the contemplation — 
I could not anticipate so glorious a consummation, were 
such even the will of the Gods." 

274. Eustathius asserts that the limitation of 
uyaX/uLa to the sense of (t a statue," is post-Homeric. 
It originally signified an ornament of any description. 

332. rXwo-erac. This part of the victim was sacred 
to Mercury, to whom the concluding ceremonies of 

o 



98 SALEBR-ffi INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

every nocturnal entertainment were addressed ; the 
rite was Attic. 

460. Ue/nir^oXa. A curious remark on this part 
of the ceremony is made by the Pseudo-Herodotus: 
'AioWesg yap jjlovol ra GTr\ay\va itri irivrz 6(3e\iov 
fOTTTUxjL, aide aXXot EAA/jv££ ettl TpiCov' K.ai yap ovo/na- 
ZiOvaiv hi 'A^oAA^c to TTtvra, 7T£/U7rf . 

Z. 163. QolvLKog. " This tree is mentioned in the 
Orphic poems, as proverbial for longevity ; and was the 
only one known to the ancients which never changed 
its leaves ; all other evergreens shedding them, though 
not regularly, nor all at once. It has also the property 
of flourishing in the most parched and dry situations, 
where no other large trees will grow ; and therefore 
might naturally have been adopted as a vegetable sym- 
bol of the sun ; whence it frequently accompanies the 
horse on the coins of Carthage ; and in the Corinthian 
sacristy in the temple at Delphi, was a bronze palm- 
tree with frogs and water-snakes round its root, signi- 
fying the sun fed by humidity. The pillars in many of 
the Egyptian temples represent palm-trees, with their 
branches lopped off; and it is probable, that the palms 
in the temple of Solomon were pillars of the same form, 
that prince having admitted many profane symbols among 
the ornaments of his sacred edifice." — R. P. Knight. 
Another, the most singular property of the palm, Mr. 
Knight has omitted to notice ; that it flourishes in pro- 
portion as it is depressed; thus constituting an apt 
emblem of victory. The word QoiviK, according to Mr. 
Bryant, is derived from the Egyptian prefix phi, and 
the Greek ava% ; and was a title of honour or royalty, 
hence applied to the palm, and to crimson, the colour 
worn by royal personages ; and lastly used as a pro- 
vincial name, but not until after the Greeks became 
masters of that part of Asia: the inhabitants being, 



SALEBILE INTERPRETAT10NUM ET CRITICS. 99 

clown to that time, called Tyrians and Sidonians. From 
the belief that this tree had the faculty of rising again, 
when cut down, arose the fable of the Phcenix (as a 
bird) rising from its own ashes. 

i. 2. The following arguments have been adduced 
by a contributor to the Classical Journal, to prove that 
the Phaaacia (Scheria) of Homer was no other than 
Palestine, and that Alcinous was Solomon. 1. Homer 
was acquainted with the names of Sidon and Egypt ; it 
would be strange then, if, being cotemporary, he had . 
made no mention of " Solomon in all his glory." 2. 
Corcyra, following Homer's route of Ulysses, was out 
of his way. 3. The name Alcinous signifying " power- 
ful in wisdom," will be easily admitted to be applicable 
to the royal Jew. 4. The gardens of Alcinous, and 
those of Solomon, were equally remarkable. 5. Alci- 
nous was sovereign of twelve tribes, so was Solomon 
(Kings, 1, 4). 6. The thrones of Alcinous and of the 
son of David were both supported by golden lions. 7. 
The naval powers of both were remarkable. 8. Homer 
attributes to the Phaeacians that which foreigners gene- 
rally asserted of the Jews, a suspicion and dislike of 
foreigners. With respect to the throne of Alcinous, as 
supported by golden lions, the words of Homer are 
Xpvaeioi kvveq ovg "H^aioroc erev^ev ; on which Mr. 
Bryant remarks, that they contain the vestige of a 
fable suggested by the Cuthite or Cusaean worship of 
the sun, or Vulcan, the \pvauoi Kvveg being a corrup- 
tion of the name of his priests ; the Sun being called 
sometimes by the Egyptians cahen, hence the Greek 
Kvveg. A dog was also said to guard the temple of 
Jupiter in Crete. The epithet XP V<J ^ U) P was °f the 
same origin. 

%2, N?7jOtroy. In Ithaca there were two promon- 



100 SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS, 

tories, Neius and Neritus, the former at the northern, 
the other at the southern , extremity. 

25. Haywire praTy — 7rpbg ZoQov. These words would 
most naturally signify " to the north-west;" but this 
is true of Ithaca, only with respect to Zacynthus, the 
Oxiae, and Echinades. The explanations suggested 
by Strabo and Eustathius are so unsatisfactory, that 
the only clearing up of the difficulty appears to be the 
removal of v. 26. Ithaca will then be said to lie, where 
it really does ; the most northern of the group. 

31. KipKn. The fable of Circe, as well as those 
of the Cyclops and Laestrygones, is a perverted ac- 
count of the practices of sacrificing and eating the 
flesh of human victims familiar with the priests of the 
Sun. The sufferers of this loathsome superstition 
were allured to their death, in some cases, by the mu- 
sical talents and personal beauty of the priestesses., 
which is alluded to in the legends of Sirens and Circe, 
as resolved by Mr. Bryant. A scholiast describes the 
Cyclopes as identical with the Leontini, and the Loto- 
phagi, with the Agrigentines or Camarinenses. Speak- 
ing of Sicily, Mr. Bryant says, that the name QpivaKir) 
has no allusion to its triangular shape, as Delos was 
called by this name ; but that the Greek rpa\iv is a 
corruption of the Egyptian tor-chun : turris sacra. 
Vid. Eurip. Phoen. 195. 

1.19. Ilaroc avOp. The interpretation of iraTog 
offered here by Eustath. sc. avaarpocj)!), 6d6g } may be 
improved upon by translating " the presence of man 
does not control them." 

127. "At kev TtXiouv EKacrra. " Which would supply 
all their wants." 

143. 'Ovdl 7rpov(j)aiveT IdioQai. " And was in- 
visible," sc. the Deity. The idiom requires this, 6v$k 
connecting the two verbs. 



SALEBRjE interpretation™ et critics. 101 

151. 'AwofipiZavTzg. The ideas included in this by 
a scholiast are superfluous, sc. £7ri fiopa koX rpvcprj, the 
verb simply signifies " to rest." 

245, A scholiast remarks that Homer inverts the 
customary application of the words jdpicpog and £^uj3puov; 
the former, in all other Greek, signifying the young 
animal after, the latter before, birth. 

379. At£0cuv£To, " became red." 

385. We have here described the process of work- 
ing what we call a capstan. 

452. Eustathius conjectures that Polyphemus most 
probably had originally two eyes, and that one having 
been lost in some previous adventure, this deficiency 
hinted to Ulysses to finish what some other wanderer, 
in a similar predicament, had begun. 

542. Eustathius explains this by kg tj)v tov -irepav 
v^criSiov yipGOv Otfiojazv iKiaOai Trjv vavv. May not the 
construction be wore jurj iKiaOat, thus making the present 
case, exactly what one would expect, the reverse of the 
former. 

k. 5. Heraclides Ponticus considers iEolus and his 
twelve children an allegory of the year and the twelve 
months. 

24. If I may venture an emendation, I would read 
*lva /jli) tl wapairv. 6X. n. making tl the nominative, and 
taking 6X1701/ adverbially, " that no adverse wind may 
blow." 

32. Uo^a most naturally signifies the sheet of the 
mainsail, or rather the lug-sail (as they had but one). 
There is nothing inconsistent in the phrase, as applied 
to the helms-man, who, though not always with his 
own hands, virtually controls the motions of the sails. 

41. 'O/nriv odbv. " The same expedition." 

56. ' 'A0v<7(7«jU£0' vBwp. Equivalent to " cleared the 
pumps." 



102 SALEBRjE INTERPRETATIONS ET CRITIC/E. 

82. "OOl Toifxtva TrQijjLyjv, sq. " Where the herdsman 
bringing home his flock, calls his fellow, and he obeys 
the call, and drives out (others) : there too, such as 
can dispense with sleep receives double wages ; one, 
as the tender of the oxen, (by night, as being less de- 
fended by natural covering from the asili, and there- 
fore unfit to be exposed to the heat of the day) ; the 
other, as the guardian of the white sheep (by day) ; 
for the services ofthedayand night succeed each other 
without intermission." 

136. KipKT]. The Homeric Armida appears to be 
an allegorical personage, partly of the same character 
as Orpheus and Amphion ; the vocal talent in all is 
the same emblem of the alluring influence of culture 
and civilization on barbarism, though varying in its 
tendencies, effecting in one case an amelioration, in the 
other going a step farther, and degenerating into laxity 
and licentiousness. 

164. 'E^j3aivwv, Xa£ irpocrfiag. 

248. Foov wiETo. " Dwelt upon, brooded over his 
sorrow." 

398. f I^£jOoac 700c. " Tears of gladness, the pathos 
of joy." ^ 

513. ' Axtpovra. Strabo places this lake between 
Cumae and Misenum. He also observes that the names 
given by Homer were really the ancient names of rivers 
in the neighbourhood, though the poet, in the exer- 
cise of his privilege, does not place them in their 
proper situations. It is transmitted by some writers, 
that the Cimmerii once inhabited this part of Italy, 
(vid. X. 14,) and that the cave of Pausilippo was formed 
by them about the Trojan era, where they were in the 
habit of offering sacrifices to the dead. Silius Italicus 
says, that the old name of the Lucrine lake was 
Cocytus. Acheron and Avcrnus arc also reported to 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONS! ET CRITICS. 103 

have been identical. Livy records, that in this place 
Hannibal offered sacrifice to the manes. Mr. Sandys, 
in his Travels, says, " These ceremonies being per- 
formed, they laid the corpse in a boat, {of papyrus, 
hence Virgil's sutilis cymba,) to be wafted over Ache- 
rusia, a lake on the south of Memphis, by only 
one person, whom they called Charon, which gave to 
Orpheus the invention of his infernal ferryman ; an 
ill-favoured, slovenly fellow, as Virgil describes him. 
About this lake stood the shady temple of Hecate, 
with the ports of Cocytus and Oblivion, separated by 
bars of brass, the original of like fables. When landed 
on the other side, the bodies were brought before cer- 
tain judges; if convicted of an evil life, they were de- 
prived of burial ; if otherwise, they suffered them to 
be interred." This system of taking public notice of all 
deaths had a political design, the prevention of mur- 
ders. The whole recital is, by some, supposed to be 
a transcript of the Grecian, or rather Egyptian, mys- 
teries. See Warburton's " Examination of the Sixth 
^Eneid." Mr. Bryant supposes "Acheron" to be syno- 
nymous with " Ekron." 

555. " It appears that this young gentleman retired, 
in order to keep himself cool, to no other place than 
the roof of the palace, (which is not, I believe, gene- 
rally perceived,) and forgetting where precisely he was, 
or how he got there, descending sooner than he ex- 
pected, dislocated the vertebrae of his neck, by coming 
down the wrong way." — Anonymous Essay, date, 1779. 
Homer, too, jests with the fate of the unfortunate El- 
penor, (vid. A. 58.) 

A. 19. Nu£ oXoi). Eustathius correctly translates 
these words " unnatural darkness." 

47. 'Eiraivrj. Buttmann's ingenious and correct in- 
terpretation of this epithet is " illustrious," famous, 



104 SALEBRyE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 

lit. " much-talked-of," aivog, i. q. juvOog, See Glos- 
sary. 

76. Mod — avdpbg. For other instances of this 
change of case, called a\{]fxa avrnrTwriKOv. See II. k. 
187, £.139; Od. i//. 215. 

94. ^vx*! — £X WV * This syntax, familiar to the dra- 
matic poets, is called by grammarians <jxw°- npbg to 
(jr\fiatvoixivov. See it. 476. 

134. 'A/3XrjXiOoc Oavarog. " A painless death." 

147. Nt]jU£ot£c Ivtyu : i. e. to speak in one's real 
character. See Virg. (i Veras audire et reddere voces." 
JEn. 1. 

235. The legend of the thunder of Salmoneus is 
post-Homeric. 

270. Mrjrepa 8' 'OiSnroSao. The differences are re- 
markable between the Homeric and dramatic accounts 
of CEdipus : 1. In the name of Jocasta. 2. In Homer's 
omitting to mention the Sphinx. 3. The insinuation 
that CEdipus continued to be king of Thebes, after 
the death of Jocasta, v. 275. 4. In the manner and 
place of his death ; in Homer, he is SeSoviruyg, slain in 
battle, and buried at Thebes. In the tragedies he 
dies at Athens, and by a preternatural death. Pau- 
sanias, when he says that Homer mentions no children 
of Jocasta and CEdipus, forgets the allusions in the 
Iliad to the war of the Septem. c. Theb., and supports 
this error by an erroneous translation of a(pap avairvara, 
sq., making acpap an adverb of place, it being always 
applied to time. 

300. " The sons of Tyndarus were, by the same 
means, (sc. the habit of giving to children at their 
birth, the names of deities, under whose protection 
they were supposed to be thus placed, which names 
were subsequently changed for others,) confounded 
with the ancient personifications of the diurnal and 



SALEBR.E INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITICS. 105 

nocturnal sun, or of the morning and evening star, the 
symbols of whose attributes, the two oval or conic 
caps, were interpreted to signify their birth from Leda's 
egg ; a fable, engrafted upon the old allegory, subse- 
quent to the Homeric times ; the four lines 300 to 304, 
being undoubtedly spurious, though extremely beauti- 
ful: XeXoyxaa X<ra betrays the interpolator, the ad- 
jective having been written with the digamma." — R. P. 
Knight. 

321. QrjfTEug. "Theseus appears likewise (as well 
as Perseus) to be a personage who started into being 
between the respective ages of the two Homeric 
poems ; there being no mention of him in the genuine 
parts of the Iliad (vide II. a. 265), 4 though the Athenian 
genealogy is minutely detailed ; and he being only 
once slightly mentioned as the lover of Ariadne in the 
genuine parts of the Odyssey. He seems, in reality, 
to be the Athenian personification of Hercules, he 
having the same symbols of the club and lion's skin ; 
and similar actions and adventures being attributed to 
him, many of which are manifestly allegorical, such as 
his conflicts with the Minotaur, the Centaur, and the 
Amazons." — R. P. Knight. 

323. The story of the desertion of Ariadne by 
Theseus is post-Homeric. 

415. "RSrj jucv TTo\i(*)v avfipuv fyovui) avrf/3oAi?(ra. 
This idea is beautifully expressed in the following, by 
Lord Byron : 

** Oh ! God ! it is a fearful thing 
To see the human soul take wing 
In any shape, in any mood : — 
I've seen it rushing forth in blood; 
I've seen it, on the breaking ocean, 
Strive with a swoln convulsive motion ; 
I've seen the sick and ghastly bed 
Of sin, delirious with its dread: 
But these, &c."- — Prisoner of Chilloii. 
P 



100 SALEBRiE INTERPRETATIONUM ET CRITIC.E, 

567. Mivwa. From the Phoen. mi-non, sc, " aquae 
princeps," 

575. The fable of the Vulture and Tityus, was 
drawn, according to Mr. Bryant, from the device of 
a vulture decorating the front of a temple occupying 
the space mentioned. The Egyptians used to orna- 
ment their temples with figures of birds of this species, 
hence the name Egypt, from asroc and yvip. 

600. Tbv Ss juet , sq. " Next, T beheld the might 
of Hercules, his phantom ; for he is himself a reveller 
at the banquet of the Gods, and possesses the slender- 
footed Hebe, daughter of Jove and the golden-slip- 
pered Juno : around him rose the screaming of the 
shades as of birds ; .while he, like lowering darkness, 
holding his uncased bow, the shaft upon the string, 
scowls fiercely, ever as though he would free the 
arrow : a burnished belt encircles his breast ; it was a 
cincture of gold ; there wonderful designs were ex- 
ecuted ; bears, and boars of the wild, and grim lions, 
battles and combats, bloodshed and homicide : nought 
before or since, e'er designed the ingenious author of 
that belt." The chief deity of Tyre and Sidon was called 
Ourcholl; by the Egyptians Archel; in Greek "HpaKXrjg. 

635. 'E7ti vria kuov. Homer's land of the dead ap- 
pears to be considered and spoken of by him as an 
island, placed by Strabo in the Atlantic, off the coast 
of Spain. '£lKwvbg. Phcen. Og, " a boundary." 

fi. 72. 'AAA' "HpT? 7rapa7rejLi^£v. Eustathius attri- 
butes the interposition of Juno on this occasion to 
the employment of her agency as an allegorical person- 
age, i. e. a prosopopoeia of the air; but this is a 
subtlety which Homer certainly never descended to. 
This verse and the preceding three Mr. Knight con- 
fidently asserts to have been interpolated. On the 
allusion in v. 69, he remarks : " The Egyptians, as be- 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 107 

fore observed, represented the sun in a boat instead of 
a chariot, (a symbolical composition of the plastic 
spirit upon the waters,) from which boat being carried 
in procession upon men's shoulders, as it often appears 
on their sculptures, probably arose the fable of the 
Argonautic expedition, of which there is not a trace 
in the genuine part of the Homeric poems." 

85. ^KvXXrj. Mr. Blackwell considers the fable of 
Scylla to be the poetical form of expressing the in- 
security of a coast infested by pirates and wreckers. 

198. According to Madame Dacier, <pQoyyr\ signifies 
instrumental, aoidi) vocal music; perhaps the former 
may rather be understood to mean the music, the air, 
and the latter the words of the song : aoidrj elsewhere 
signifying " a musical recital," vide 6. 948. 

306. "YdciTog yXvKtpolo, "fresh water. Virg. " dul- 
ces aqua?." 



CHAPTER X. 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 



It appears that the mythi, which Homer either adopts 
to suit his own purposes, or alludes to, were invented 
and subjects of tradition before his time, (lie \xr$i vbg ££ 
a\i]9ovg avaTTTZiv K.aiv)]v reparoXoyiav ov\ o/nripiKOv, is 
the judgment of Strabo and Polybius, but Homer 
amplifies and elevates to the rank of the superhuman 
(iKTpayiodu) what he has heard ;) and that they belong 
to different classes, the basis of their structure being 
legends of different and successive stages of antiquity; 
some, commemorative of deeds and circumstances trans- 



108 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

mitted from one generation, to furnish a tale of wonder 
to another ; others, the vehicles of conjectures and 
external perceptions concerning natural phenomena, 
wrought by the ingenuity of imagination into the forms 
of reality; and both rendered attractive by the diction 
and sentiment of antiquity ; that most of the latter 
class had previously become popular in several poems, 
and had been presented in various costumes, by the 
fancies of the several authors, and, thus offered, 
that he had adopted and used them ; that he makes 
mention of many historic legends, in occasional and 
distant allusions; and the other class, I mean that 
which contains the substance of popular belief res- 
pecting physical and theological subjects, that he so 
turned to his own uses (either following the state- 
ments of others, or modelling to his own taste,) as to 
make a historic use of the personifications of abstract 
qualities and natural phenomena ; that is, that these, 
called and believed to be deities, are introduced as 
actors into the plot of the story, so as to effect the 
awakening of wonder, the highest aim of epic com- 
position. 

To represent the power of Jupiter, as eminent 
above that of the other deities, how possibly could the 
idea of a chain suspended from the heaven, to which all 
the rest are attached, and moveable by him alone, have 
suggested itself to the poet's imagination ? A concep- 
tion so far-fetched, so inconsistent with his habitual 
style of thought is untenable ; but it becomes a pleasing 
and ingenious allegory if we understand in it an ancient 
legend ; for, under this image, we know the connexion 
and order of the parts of this universe to have been 
adumbrated, all being held immoveably in their places 
by an attraction proportioned to their weight. A si- 
milar resolution is applicable to the my thus of the sus- 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 109 

pension of Juno and the two anvils, borrowed from an 
older poet, by whom it is introduced into the history 
of Hercules. The quarrels of Jupiter and Juno have 
the same tendency. 

That an affinity exists between these, and that 
species of poems denominated Cosmogoniae and Theo- 
goniaa, will be perceived by a comparison of the Theo- 
gony of Hesiod ; if the passages containing them are 
not to be rather considered as recent interpolations, 
which would be to grasp at conjectures and reject 
probabilities : upon this principle we should expunge the 
lines II. 9. 13 — 16; concerning Tartarus, 0. after 478; 
on the subject of the Titans and Saturn, £. 274 — 279 ; 
o. 203 — 225 ; and the allusion to the aid afforded by 
Thetis to Jupiter, a. 398, sq. Legends borrowed 
from the Heraclean poems, are easily discoverable by 
their general aspect and style of narration, as II. £. 249, 
sq., 0. 18, sq. ; that treating of the shipwreck at Cos, 
£. 392; of the war at Pylos, and capture of Troy by 
Hercules, c. 637; and the allusions contained in £. 18, 
a. 590, r. 91, sq., 0. 362, sq., &c. 

The my thus of the Aloidaa has been similarly ap- 
propriated, according to a scholiast, from Antimachus. 
The origin of that respecting the cestus of Venus, is 
not so certainly traced : nor am I satisfied whether the 
cooperation of Minerva with Diomed is an original 
conception ; it appears more like a variety of the ac- 
count by a previous writer, of her having taken a similar 
interest in Hercules. Certain allegorical forms of ex- 
pression and narration, with a peculiar style of epithets, 
seem to belong to the poetic language of a previous 
age ; e. g. the visit of the gods to the Ethiopians ; emi- 
nence of skill in any art or profession being attributed 
to divine instruction ; distinguished individuals claim- 
ing celestial parentage, &c., and gave rise to strange 



110 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

histories of the amours of the Gods, which are to he 
found in the poem of the r Hoiol — Heyne, 

Harpyies, II. 7r. 150. It is obvious that the first 
notion of the Harpyies originated in a prosopopoeia of 
storms, which same idea brought Typlion into poetical 
existence. In this passage, but one, Podarge, is men- 
tioned, two others are elsewhere named, whose names 
Aello and Gcypete, are indicative of the phenomena 
which they represent. Hesiod, Theog. 267. The tra- 
dition of the Harpyia having produced horses, is merely 
an allegory, denoting more impressively the speed of 
the animals, and thus it became necessary to endue the 
parents, the female one at least, with their form. 
From the epithet t\vkoijlol in Hesiod, it is natural to 
suppose that their faces were those of women ; in 
Homer that is not alluded to, except in Od. v. 77, 
by the word icovpcu ; but there and here they are of 
different forms ; being there represented as birds, 
and taking off the daughters of Pandarus. Whence 
it becomes evident, that these mythi, which serve the 
purposes of poetic decoration, in the ancient sym- 
bolical style of representing abstract ideas by forms 
palpable to the senses, are of a different class from 
those which form the subject of tradition founded on 
fact. According to an ingenious conjecture of Keep- 
pen, these lines may be made to allude to the Harpyies 
being used as chariot-steeds by Zephyrus. As they 
are attributed to Sol, Lucifer, &c (Euripides, Phcen. 
220,) and then, Ztyvpto tekz will signify, " in Zephyr* 
grdtiam" i. e. for Ms use, or, while in his possession ; 
but the Greek tekhv nv\, will hardly bear this inter- 
pretation. Uapa poov 'ClKEavo'io is in accordance with 
the practice of ancient poetry, of placing all monsters 
in the far west, near the dwellings of Nox and the 
Inferi, as has been noticed on Virgil, (Georg. 3,270,) 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. HI 

and Apollodorus. The horses of Achilles, on his death, 
would fly away, virip '12/ceayoto poag, kol TtjOvoq avrpa, 
if not detained by Neoptolemus — Ibid. They represent, 
according to Mr. Bryant, the predatory priests of the 
sun. 

Ate. II. a. 412, r. 135, &c. Ate, on a comparison 
of different passages in Homer, is found to signify : 1 . 
The temerity of an exasperated or overbearing mind, 
as II. a. 412, r. 135; Od. 8. 261, o. 233, and $. 223. 
2. Since there stands frequently some difficulty in the 
way of ascribing such error to an individual of habitual 
prudence, it is in these cases conceived to mean in- 
fatuation ; the idea of a divine influence, or the male- 
volence of an irresistible fatality being associated, under 
which latter, Agamemnon defends his conduct in II. r. 
87, tyw S 1 ov/c &ITIOQ hfii, hence it also stands for a sus- 
pension of the usual mental activity, as in the case of 
Patroclus, rbv §' arr) (ppivaq aAe, tt. 805. 3. It is the 
injury which one, under the influence above-mentioned, 
inflicts on another: in this sense particularly is Ate 
personified. 4. It is the disgrace consequent on such 
injury, £. 356, w. 28. 5. It is the criminality, or re- 
morse, which we find haunting the guilty, (II. i. 508, 
to} clti)v a\x sttegOcu.) 6. It is the final consequence, 
the retribution, (II. ft. Ill, and r. 270, Zev wareo, ?}' pe- 
yaXag arag avdpecrcn StSoTcr^a,) in which sense voaoq is 
used by the tragic poets, (vide Eurip. Troad. 27, 
1012.)— Ibid. 

Dodona. II. tt.233. Zev AwSuvatz. From an article 
on the Dodonaean oracle of Jupiter, in the " Memoires 
de l'Academie des Inscriptions," vol. 35, we learn that 
the worship of the Dodonaean Jupiter was a Pelasgic 
rite ; and that the officiating ministers were the Selli, 
of austere and primitive simplicity of life. The ancient 
records, collected by Strabo, (7, p. 504,) contain these 



112 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

remarks : that Dodona was situated among the Hyper- 
borei, and that there existed two cities of the name. In 
the most remote antiquity alone, could Epirus have 
been considered a Hyperborean region ; an epithet 
attached to all cities situated in the distant North. 
From Stephanus Byz. we learn, that Philoxenus (o t{]v 
^Odvaae'iav vTTo/^vrj/xart^wy) has spoken of two Dodonse, 
one in Thessaly, one in Molossia : with the latter, the 
Dodona of Epirus must have been identical. What 
then could have been the other of Thessaly ? In the 
early ages, no distinction of Epirus from Thessaly was 
observed ; for we find the Dodonsei among the Thes- 
salian troops, (II. /3. 750.) The Pelasgic tribes were 
ever unsettled, and the Molossi dwelt in the westward 
mountains ; thus they became identified, and from these 
different names of the same Dodona, arose the modern 
belief in the existence of two, which was further en- 
couraged by the apparent inconsistency, that a foreign 
Epirotic deity should be invoked by a Thessalian chief: 
ev OETTaXia, I suspect to have been the original read- 
ing of a passage in Stephan. Byz., which at present 
stands thus, i( esse et aliam Dodonctm ev 'IraXta." The 
error was detected by Epaphroditus at this passage, 
where follows IwlkskXiike Be 'Ay^XXsuc tov (ev) deaaaXia. 
yurvibjvra Oiov ; as Pandarus invokes a Lycian, and 
Chryses the Sminthian (Phrygian) deity. Of the name 
Dodona, a trifling etymology is given, " curb tov $t- 
Sovai" quoted by a scholiast ; and for TreXaayiice, " on 
y{)Q treXaq hart :" this nonsense owes its being to Clean- 
thes. Some have asserted that this god was called vdiog, 
(" vdpYjXa yap cicci \topia^) which must have obviously 
been suggested by an effaced inscription, ****vcuoe ; 
he is also named BwSwvatoe, the iEolic form, in which 
dialect AeX^oi was pronounced BeX^ou Zenodotus 
reads <Priy (ovale from &nyog, " hru ev Aiodibvrj ttqiotov 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMES. 1 \S 

rj <pT]y6g e/jiavrevero ; but rather from dwelling sv </>^y^>. 
Suidas is authority for the existence, in Thessaly, of a 
temple of that name ; and Cineas, for that of a town, 
Rhegus, whence the oracle was removed to Epirus. 
The name TrsXaayiicE is easily explained from Herodotus, 
Clio, 52, sq., where he says, " The whole worship of 
the Pelasgi consisted of sacrifices ; as I remember to 
have heard at Dodona ; but they had not, at this pe- 
riod, distinguished their deities by names, with which 
they were not yet acquainted : the general name 9eol 
was commemorative of the tutelary power which they 
were supposed to exercise ; and subsequently, of their 
individual appellations, many were imported from 
Egypt, among the most recent, that of Dionysus ; the 
rest, after a time, they obtained on divine authority, 
at Dodona : this oracle is considered to have been the 
most ancient, and at this period, the only one among 
the Greeks. From this time the nominal designation 
of the deities was constantly included in the ceremonies 
of their worship, and was perpetuated by the Hellenes. 
Whence the several deities derived their origin, or, 
whether or not they had existed, collectively, during 
all time, and in what corporeal forms they were recog- 
nized, was not until very lately ascertained. Homel- 
and Hesiod were the originators of Greek theogony ; 
they assigned to them their names, honours, profes- 
sions, and forms. Of the oracles of the Greeks, both 
Hellenic (European) and Lybian, the Egyptians give 
the following account : the priests of the The ban 
Jupiter say, that two priestesses were brought away 
from Thebes by the Phoenicians, of whom one was 
ascertained to have been sold in Libya, and the other 
to the Greeks, where they afterwards severally estab- 
lished oracles. The statement of the Dodonaean seers 
is this: that of two black doves, which had flown from 



1 14 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

Egyptian Thebae, one arrived in Libya, and. one among 
them, and sitting on a beech-tree, uttered a human 
voice ; saying, that on that spot, should the oracle of 
Jupiter be ; which, as a divine mandate, the natives 
obeyed ; that the other, on her appearance among the 
Libyans, ordered, in like manner, the establishment 
of the oracle of Ammon (Jupiter). These women 
were, in my opinion, called doves by the Dodonasans, 
because they were foreigners, and appeared to them, 
before they became acquainted with the Greek lan- 
guage, to utter the inarticulate sounds of birds. The 
report of their blackness contained an allusion to their 
Egyptian origin. The system of prediction at Dodona, 
bears a close resemblance to that of Egyptian Thebae." 
Thus writes Herodotus. In the Pelasgi were included 
the Thesproti, Chaones, and other nations in this 
neighbourhood ; in this region also inhabited a branch 
of the same tribe, the FpaiKoi, who gave to their ter- 
ritory the subsequently universal name Grascia. Aris- 
totle, Meteor. 1, 14. Here too dwelt the %£X\oi. By 
those who are of opinion, that the invocation of this 
Jupiter by iVchilles, a Thessalian, is in accordance 
with his national rites, this name of Jupiter is prefer- 
ably referred to the Pelasgi of Thessaly, UsXaayia 
yap Trporspov r) QeaaaXia IkoXuto, $%, bv /ecu irsXaGyacbc, 
wg virb YleXaayivv r^w/xevoc. The posterity of iEolus 
possessed a part of Thessaly, in which was situated 
Arne, founded by Bceotus, whence the inhabitants are 
called Boeotians, and with these took refuge the Cad- 
masi, forced to emigrate from Thebes. In about sixty 
years after the capture of Troy, these Boeotians, to- 
gether with the Cadmaei, on being dislodged by the 
Thessalians, retired into Bceotia, to which they then 
gave their name. (Diodorus, 4, 67.) And, in like man- 
ner, the Pelasgi, exiled by the CEoles, on their occu- 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 115 

pation of Arne, retreated to Dodona. The Pelasgi, 
and their name, continued long in Thessaly and several 
other districts. We find the name Pelasgiotis ; and the 
region about Scotussa was named Pelasgia, where 
Suidas, quoted by Strabo, says that there stood a 
temple of Jupiter, whence his worship was transferred 
to Dodona. Some read in this line YleXapyiicE, which 
they derive from the traditionary existence of a white 
mound, Xocpog apybg, called ireXapyiKov, within the 
sacred precincts of Dodona. Others again read IlfXao-- 
tlke ; ov 7riXag lar\v 6 arjp, Ztvg yap IgtIv ?? rov koctjulov 
\fsvxfj, aspwdrjg ovaa. These persons, in the spirit of 
grammatic or philosophic trifling, fancied a contrast 
between 7rtXacrTiKs and ty]X66l vaiwv, which Achilles 
uses simply because he was far from home. An an- 
cient legend, according to scholia A. and B., says, that 
Deucalion, in obedience to the response of the 7reXdag, 
planted a colony of those who survived the deluge 
(referred by some to Delphi), and called it after Do- 
done, one of the Oceanides. The account is given by 
Thrasybulus and Acestorides, mythological writers. 
This name, according to Acestodorus, was derived from 
Dodonus, or Dodon, the son of Jupiter and Europa. 
Herodianus deduces the name from the river Dodon. 
Ip the scholiast B. other particulars are given, which 
however are post-Homeric, such as the oracular 
authority of kettles, &c. On the subject of the pro- 
phetesses, Homer appears to differ from the account 
of Herodotus, as may be collected from the term viro- 
fyriTai ; who were probably, however, but the interpre- 
ters of the neXdaStg. He also mentions the oak, Od. £. 
327, alluded to also in the fragment of Hesiod, quoted by 
the scholiast on Sophocl. Trach. 1082; an idea taken 
probably from the practice of the uncivilized natives, 
o( living in hollow trees, consonant with the habits of 



116 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

the most ancient Pelasgi. From the Selli, to whom 
the care of the temple particularly belonged, were 
chosen the vwo^rirai. The hypotheses of the river 
Selleis deriving its name from the Selli, and they from 
the river, have been variously adopted. The mountain 
Tomarus, or Imams, was adjacent, from which we find, 
in remarks on Od. 7r. 403, that the ministers of the 
temple were called Tomouri. The Selli, according to 
some accounts, were more properly called Helli, and, 
under either name, must have been Pelasgi, who were 
all eminently observant of sacred rites. They adopted 
a style of life retired and eccentric; not unlike that 
of mendicant monks. From Alexander Pleuronius we 
learn that the Helli were a Tyrrhene people, with whom 
this form of worship was national and hereditary ; these 
Tyrrheni being Pelasgi, and generally confounded with 
the Tyrrheni of Hetruria. In the 140th Oh b. c. 220, 
Dodona shared the general devastation of Epirus by 
the iEtolians, in the Social War, (Polyb. 4, 67, 3,) which 
was followed by a similar storm on the Roman conquest, 
when not less than seventy cities of Epirus were, in 
one day, levelled with the ground. 

Olympus. The belief that Olympus was the favourite 
residence of the deities, took its rise, among the Pieres, 
who lived at its base, principally from the summit of 
the mountain being invisible, wrapt in perpetual clouds, 
and supposed to be ever unvisited by the winds (Od. £. 
42): the same causes which, among the Phrygians, ef- 
fected the consecration of Ida, and a similar supersti- 
tion among the North American Indians. Jupiter, 
"lSriOsv f.i^iu)v, was believed to have inhabited particu- 
larly the piov of Olympus, which was the neck, or 
column, supporting the crowning platform. 

Although it cannot be a matter of doubt, that the 
personages of Grecian mythology, being, like almost 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 117 

all other institutions of antiquity, of oriental origin, 
were, at their creation, allegorical personifications of 
abstract moral qualities or physical phsenomena; yet, 
it will become equally evident, on investigation of the 
occasions and circumstances of their intervention and 
agency in the action of the two Homeric poems, that 
they are employed by the poet as mere dramatis per- 
sona?, distinguished, of course, by many of their ori- 
ginal characteristic symbols and occupations ; and that 
they are introduced into the plots of the Iliad and 
Odyssey with no deeper meaning than the human 
characters, acting and speaking, designing and counter- 
plotting, as the abettors and partisans of the hostile in- 
terests. It has been remarked, that Homer's deities 
are judiciously divided between the two parties : the 
Greeks temperate and prudent, are assisted by Pallas 
and Juno. The Trojans are aided by Mars, an ill-re- 
gulated, warlike spirit ; Venus, luxury and effeminacy ; 
and Apollo, the personification of heat, ecstatic music, 
and passionate poetry. Jupiter, the universal nature, 
or celestial influences, alternates between them. Nep- 
tune is altogether in the Greek interest, as they are 
lords of the sea. Hermes and Diana do not interfere 
prominently ; but, according to the Egyptian tradition, 
are opposed. The others, Kronos, Demeter, Hades, 
are not at all participators in the combat. Phcebus, in 
his proper capacity, sends a plague; when Achilles, 
warned by Juno, (the state of the air,) takes measures 
for its remedy. When provoked to anger, Pallas (pru- 
dence) tranquillizes him: but this is, perhaps, the very 
widest extent to which, consistently with its inseparable 
dignity, an allegorical meaning can be applied to the 
presence of the Gods in this poem, not because such 
allusions would be in themselves unworthy, but that 
they would imply an attention to minor subtleties and 



118 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

cumbrous machinery unsuited to the simple grandeur 
of an epic. As Oriental mythology, probably Phoeni- 
cian, (which of all foreign influences most materially 
affected the more recent theology of the Greeks,) sup- 
plied the persons and attributes of deities ; so tradi- 
tional perversions of the Mosaic histories have formed 
the foundations of many of their imputed actions, as 
the war of the Titans, suggested evidently by the con- 
fusion at Babel ; the fall of Vulcan and relegation of 
Apollo and Neptune, by the degradation of the rebel- 
lious angels. The loves of the angels alluded to in 
Genesis, vi. 4, have been transferred to the terrestrial 
amours of the heathen deities ; and the facts which 
supplied the Greeks with the materials of Deucalion's 
flood, and Phaeton's conflagration, need scarcely be 
pointed to in Noah's deluge and " the fire-shower of 
ruin" on Sodom and Gommorah. The few inhabitants 
of the Homeric heaven appear to be, all of them, 
creations of the philosophy above alluded to. The 
Zlvg, w Hp?], 'A-n-oWiov and" Aprs/dig, HoauSwv and Qirig, 
are to be easily traced to the realities of nature which 
they represent. The moral quality personified in Mi- 
nerva is equally obvious. The character of Mars, the 
opposite to this, embodies the " vis consilii expers," 
whose subordinate associates are Atijj.bg, <t>oj3oc,' Evvw, 
<PvZa, &c. The belief in the existence of pastoral 
deities, Oreads, Naiads, Rivers, &c, was the natural re- 
sult of the effect of sublime and romantic scenery on 
a people of fervid and poetic imagination. 

These, and a few others, spoken of as represent- 
atives of a dynasty already superseded, KpovogSlcnrtTog, 
&c, are represented as under the control of a des- 
tiny irresistible, but conditional ; and this is the chief 
difference between the Fate of Homer and that of the 
tragic poets, it admitting in the latter neither of re- 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 119 

sistance nor evasion. This characteristic of the epic 
Fate is brought remarkably into view in II. i. 410, and 
/En. 8, 398. On this subject Schlegel writes to the 
following effect : " Interior freedom and exterior ne- 
cessity — these are the two poles of the tragic world. 
Each of these ideas is brought into full manifestation 
only by its opposition to the other. Since the feeling 
of interior self-determination elevates the human being 
above the unlimited dominion of impulse, of natural in- 
stinct ; in a word, absolves him from nature's guardian- 
ship, so also the necessity which, beside her, he has to 
recognize, can no more be physical necessity, but must 
lie beyond the world of sense in the bottomless depths 
of the infinite ; consequently exhibits itself as the un- 
fathomable might of destiny. Therefore also, it ex- 
tends above the world of Gods ; for the Greek Gods 
are merely physical powers, and, though immeasurably 
higher than the mortal man, yet, compared with the 
Infinite, they rank in the same grade with him. This 
gives rise to the altogether different manner in which 
they are introduced in Homer and the tragedians. In 
Homer they appear with mere chance-caprice, and can 
impart to the epic poem nothing higher than the charm 
of the marvellous. In tragedy, on the contrary, they 
come forward either as servants of Destiny, and mediate 
executors of its decrees; or the Gods prove themselves 
godlike only by asserting their freedom of action, and 
are involved in the same battles with Fate as man." 
These personages were, until recently, considered to 
be irregular and unmethodized fictions ; no particular 
or permanent line of action being assigned to any ; they 
were, according to an English essayist of the last 
century, " natural feelings of the several powers of the 
universe;" or, in the words of the Bishop of Thessa- 
lonica, IvvoiCtv lyyevtav mciai, \\ TrapmrsTCKTfiara ; ima- 



120 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

ginings of this nature being the most sublime pre- 
sentations of these natural powers, of which we feel the 
moral and physical effects. Few allusions are disco- 
verable in Homer which do not confirm this, or, at 
least, that he was aware of the nature of the con- 
ceptions which created them. To enhance the im- 
pression of sanctity thus suggested, the ignorance of 
his age particularly contributed — the popular belief 
was not yet investigated by the philosopher, or doubted 
by the sceptic. Egyptian mythology was introduced 
into Southern Greece by Danaus ; its principles were 
afterwards more extensively and agreeably dissemi- 
nated by Orpheus, Mussbus, and Melampus, and in 
a still more popular form by Homer. It should be 
unnecessary to observe, that the Egyptian mytho- 
logy was the most allegorical even in the expression of 
ordinary ideas, simple and abstract : thus, a stork re- 
presented filial affection ; a man universally detested 
was signified by an eel, which is never seen in company 
with any other fish; pleasure they indicated by the 
number sixteen ; impossibility, by two feet walking on 
water ; antiquity, by a bundle of papyrus, the earliest 
human food ; the inundation of the river, they ex- 
pressed by the figure of a lion (denoting the month 
June) standing over three water vessels (the three 
causes of the phenomenon), with a heart and a tongue, 
signifying respectively the river and moisture. Homer 
was apparently instructed, either mediately or imme- 
diately in the doctrines of Pan and Thoth, their statute 
songs and hymns, their physics, astrology, and mys- 
teries. The absence of any mention of astrology or 
idol-worship has been deemed sufficient cause for de- 
nying to Homer's mythology an Egyptian origin. With 
respect to the latter superstition, the only contradic- 
tory instance is contained in the lines referring to the 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER, 121 

statue of Minerva in the Trojan Acropolis, II. 2, 22. 
Though Heyne (see his note in loco) contends for the 
existence of two statues. Yet the passage may per- 
haps may admit of such an interpretation as would 
render the actual presence of a statue unnecessary. 
The metaphorical use of the phrase tv yovvaai or Iml 
yovvavi is not unusual in the sense of u at the disposal 
of," " in the possession of;" by adopting this meaning 
in the present case, the robe will be said to be merely 
dedicated to the goddess, her absence being at the 
same time possible. It need scarcely be observed, that 
this ceremony evidently sugested the similar rite which 
constituted the Athenian Panathenaia. The origin of 
these dedicatory garments is supposed by Mr. Bryant 
to be in the geometric and astronomic charts, which 
were first drawn in Egypt, being there necessary for 
the restitution of land marks swept away by the annual 
inundation, and were afterwards circulated among other 
nations. Of the same nature he asserts the decoration 
of the shield of Achilles to have been. It is to Egypt 
that Mr. Bryant traces the sources of almost all the 
rites of Greek mythology. Supported by the authority 
of Orpheus, he explains heathen polytheism as nothing 
more than the personifications of the different attri- 
butes which constitute the perfection of being in one 
God ; that God being, according to their belief, the 
Sun. The channels through which this creed branched 
into such a multitude of superstitions were, in his 
opinion, a series of errors ; such as, mistaking places 
and attributes for individuals, attributing Greek ety- 
mologies and significations to names of Egyptian and 
Asiatic derivations ; and endeavouring to confirm these 
by the adaptation of unreal and explanatory legends. 

Of the religion of the ancients, the most remark- 
able features were, their oracles, their mysteries, and 

it 



123 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER, 



the worship of the serpent ; all which were of Egyptian 
growth. Of the oracles, the most distinguished in very 
early ages were, that of the Lycian Apollo, founded 
by Lycus, one of the Telchines (12), called also X>?r^ov, 
(of Latona,) whose oracle was established at Butoo, in 
Egypt ; the Delphic, which most probably owed its 
immediate origin to the Cretans ; the Clarian, in Ionia, 
founded by Mopsus, grandson of Tiresias ; and, above 
all, that of Dodona ; but these, as oracles, were post- 
Homeric. The mysteries, from so much of them as is 
divulged in Od. X. and iEneid 6, appear to have been 
a dramatic presentation of all that was anticipated in 
a future life, of which Homer's conception appears 
particularly gloomy ; at least, he seems to entertain a 
less consolatory idea of a future state than Virgil. (Vid. 
Od. X. 486, sq.) 

Of the serpent- worship, which at first sight appears 
the most inexplicable of all ancient ceremonies and sys- 
tems, no mention is found in Homer, except perhaps II. ju. 
208, be considered an allusion. Vide supra in loco. Having 
been the visible medium of the suspension of human 
immortality and happiness, it would seem the least 
likely to become an object of veneration ; but such the 
fact was. There is, however, one principle, on which 
its worship is explicable : it was venerated through 
fear, not gratitude: the cry of eva! eva! during the 
celebration of its rites, (the origin of the Greek Ivoi, and 
Latin evoef) was evidently uttered in commemoration of 
the name of its victim. A tribe of Indians, obviously from 
the same motive, were recently, if they are not still, in 
the habit of offering propitiatory adoration to the 
principle of evil. The name too, ayaObg dai/uKjjv, 
with which it was complimented, was applied with 
the same view. On this subject, Sir E. L. Bulwer 
writes thus : "In Homer, we behold the mythology of 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 123 

an era, for analogy to which we search in vain the 
records of the East : that mythology is inseparably con- 
nected with the constitution of limited monarchies, 
with the manners of an heroic age — the power of the 
sovereign of the aristocracy of heaven, is the power of 
a Grecian king over a Grecian state : the social life of 
the gods is the life most coveted by the Grecian heroes : 
the uncertain attributes of the deities, rather physical 
or intellectual than moral — strength and beauty, saga- 
city mixed with cunning, valour with ferocity, inclina- 
tion to war, yet faculties for the inventions of peace; 
such were the attributes most honoured among men, 
in the progressive, but still uncivilized age, which 
makes the interval, so preeminently Grecian, between 
the mythical and historic times. Vain and impotent 
are all attempts to identify that religion of Achaian 
warriors with the religion of Oriental priests : it was 
indeed symbolical but of the character of its believers ; 
typical but of the restless, yet poetical, daring, yet 
graceful temperament, which afterwards conducted to 
great achievements and imperishable arts : the coming 
events of glory cast their shadows before in fable." It 
appears then, as a general inference, that the theology 
of Homer, though varying somewhat between the 
Iliad and Odyssey as different eras, is not that sym- 
bolical system which prevailed among the more modern 
Greeks. Those deeply mystic personifications, Pan, 
Silenus, Bacchus, Cupid, &c, do not appear in the 
genuine text t nor do the Dioscuri, or Hercules, there 
rank as deities, or higher beings than human ; on the 
most ancient coins, however, sc. of the eighth or 
ninth centuries, b. c, appear many emblems of this 
idolatry; and in these particulars, notwithstanding 
minor discrepancies, the mythology of the two poems 
is the same. 



124 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

On the subject of one of the peculiarities of Homeric 
mythology, Mr. Knight says, it would seem that there 
were yet in Greece no temples of the Gods ; no allusion 
to any such occurs, except II. ]3. 549, manifestly interpo- 
lated; but, at Orchomenos and Delphi were repositories 
of consecrated treasures (II. i. 381, sq.) ; of these build- 
ings, the magnificence and durability may be inferred, 
from the almost perfect preservation of one at Mycenae. 
This was, however, a consequence of the veneration 
with which these places were regarded by the captors 
of cities : the treasure-house at Thebes, taken and 
razed a short time before the Trojan war, by the Epi- 
goni, remained unimpaired to the time of Herodotus. 



THE HOMERIC HADES. 

The idea that Homer's uKeavbg and the Nile were 
identical, has been transmitted through a series of 
authors, from Diodorus Siculus, who merely says that 
the ancient Egyptian name of the Nile was o/csa^rjv, 
which he Hellenizes to wKtavog. On this subject He- 
rodotus says : " I know not of any river by name 
Oceanus ; but I believe that Homer, or some preceding 
poet, invented the name and used it in his poetry." 
(Euterpe, 23.) Eustathius (Od. A. 63S,) considers it a 
poetical license, not inconsistent with poetic truth. 
Strabo, taking up the particular phrase, 7rorajiolo poov 
toKtavoTo, (Od. &. 1,) understands it of some particular 
part of the Ocean. Plato, as has been already re- 
marked, speaks of it as a river. Hesychius says, that 
it signifies " the air," and that toKeavoto tropov means 
tov alpa Ug ov at ip v X (lL T ^ ov teXbvtwvtwv airoyhipovai ; 
and accordingly the scholiast on Hesych. interprets, 
(OKiavbv fiaOudimiv by iv ro7 aipi ! But let us make 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 125 

Homer his own interpreter, from II. £. 200, <£. 195, and 
Od. S. 563, it is evident that he speaks of it as " a 
boundary," and that he uses the word in the same 
sense as other writers; he says (II. a. 423,) that the 
Ethiopians dwelt on the ocean, and (Od. a. 22,) that 
they were the most remote of men ; but here Strabo 
must again be quoted ; speaking of their territory, (lib. 
1, p. 54,) he defines it by, rbv ko.9* oXov jizGYiixfipivbv 
icXijua Tzrayfxivov ; for all those parts of Africa that 
bordered on the ocean, were inhabited by Ethiopians ; 
this, therefore, is the ocean alluded to by Homer, and 
the TrttpciTa tbKsavolo, v. 452, are the straits of Gades ; 
the name Oceani ostium is used by Cicero (Lex. Man.) 
and Mela (lib. 3, 15,) to signify the f return Gaditanum. 
The voyage of Ulysses appears to be nothing but a 
poetical history of the adventures of Phoenician navi- 
gators, who were in the habit, before the time of Ho- 
mer, of passing the Straits, and founding cities on the 
western cast of Africa. 

Homer says that the Cimmerians dwelt on the 
ocean, (Od. A. 13,) from which it has been inferred, 
that Homer's veicvia was situated in Italy, because 
Ephorus locates the Cimmerians in the region about 
Avernus, and says, that they lived in caverns (argillae.) 
But these were not the only Cimmerians : the denomi- 
nation comprised the Britons, as their name, Cymry, 
implies ; together with the Cimbri of Germany. Dio- 
dorus says, that all the Celtic tribes were identical with 
the Asiatic Cimmerii. Claudian's idea of the position 
of the Homeric Hades is thus expressed : — 

" Est locus, extremum qua pandit Gallia litus, 
Oceani praetentus aquis, ubi fertur Ulysses, 
Sanguine libato, populum movisse silentem." 

Eustathius treats the whole description as a fable, 
deriving the name from 7T£fn npia, or epav Kitfuvoi. In 



126 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

Od. A. 14, sq., their country is described as involved in 
darkness; and in w. 11, as drjjmog ovdpuv, " a place of 
darkness" loca nocte silentia late ; and this seems to 
have been the prevailing idea of the ancients respect- 
ing all countries situated in the far West. In this, their 
allusion was to the shortness of the days in winter. 
Mela (lib. 3-6) speaks of their " noctes per hyemes ob- 
scurae." Pliny asserts that there were even " nulli per 
brumam dies" (2, 75) ; and Strabo complains of the 
obscurity of the climate, when he says that " tjXlovq 
6v\ lyovai KaOapovg :" it was the same sort of darkness 
for which Thulc was proverbial ("Nigra? litora Thules." 
Statius, 4, 4, 62.) Another characteristic of the place 
mentioned by Homer is XsvicaSa Trtrprjv, which, accord- 
ing to his custom is set down as fabulous by Eusta- 
thius : this, by a bare possibility, may refer to the 
white cliffs of Britain ; the more southern islands, the 
Hesperides, being alluded to in the name Elysium. 
Strabo (lib. 4, c. 4,) seems to have perceived the same 
resemblance, which he thus expresses : " IIc/cu §1 Tr)g 
Ar}/x?7rpoc, Kat Tr)g KopriQ^iGTOTepa, on <j>r)<Jtv llvai vr)crov 
Trpoc ry 'BpiTTaviKy, kclQ' rjv efioia Tolg ev ^afioOpaicri Trepl 
Tr)g Ar)/ir]rpog Kai Trig Kopr\g UpoiroiuTat.'''' 

Homer speaks of all these places as sacred to Pro- 
serpine (vid. Od. A. 212, 225, 384, 632;) and the 
scholiast on Plato relates that seven islands in the 
Atlantic were sacred to her. It is in the West that all 
monsters of fable were placed by the Greeks ; these 
regions were devoted to the Di inferi, as those of the 
East were to the Superi. Tzetzes tells of a people who 
inhabited the shores of the ocean about Britain, and 
were accustomed to hear, at midnight, the sounds of 
knocking at their doors, and voices calling on them by 
name : they would, on these occasions, arise and de- 
scend to the beach, where they usually found ships 



MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER, 127 

filled with strange men : embarking with these, they 
used, in one hour's rowing, to arrive at the island of 
Britain, which in their own vessels they could with dif- 
ficulty reach in twenty-four hours : after landing here, 
seeing nothing human, and still hearing the mysterious 
voices, they used, after a short delay, to return home 
in the same manner and time : " hither," he says, " ac- 
cording to the belief of the Greeks, the souls of the 
dead used to pass over." The principal reason why 
the infernal regions were believed to lie beneath Italy 
was, because A vermis was said to be one of the en- 
trances ; but these entrances were generally placed on 
the sea-coast, where the Phoenicians may have stopped 
on their way in their several voyages to the West sc, 
at Taenarus ; in Pontus, among the Maryandini, (Apol- 
Ion. Rhod. Argon. 2, 352,) this lay on the Euxine, as 
the ancients supposed a north-west passage practicable 
thence to the Atlantic ; in Thesprotia, which was also 
called Avernus; and at Tartessus (Tarshish.) 

Servius (on Virgil, ./En. G, 531,) discusses the question 
of the position of Hades : his words are, " Alii aliud 
intelligunt ; qui sub terra esse inferos volunt, secundum 
chorographos et geometras ; qui terram (Kpaipoeidii esse 
dicunt, quae aqua et aere sustentatur; quod, si est, 
ad antipodes navibus perveniri potest ; quia, quantum 
ad nos spectat, inferi sunt, sicut nos illis ; hinc est, 
quare sub terra inferos esse dicunt, quamque illud sit, 
quia novem cingulis cingitur. Tiberianus inducit epis- 
tolam vento ab antipodibus allatam, quae habet, superi 
inferis S." He need not, however, have gone so far, 
as the passage alludes to the Homeric Hades, and is 
borrowed from Od.X. 154, sq. 

While speaking of the Atlantic, it may not be out 
of place to quote the opinions of some of the ancients 
respecting the existence of land in that ocean. Homer 



128 MYTHOLOGY OF HOMER. 

(Od. a. 24,) mentions two nations of Ethiopians, one in 
the extreme East, and the other equally far westward, 
the latter of which localities cannot apply to any in- 
habitants of Africa. (See the note in the Varior. Virgil, 
on JEn. 6, 795, " jacet extra sidera tellns") Plato, in 
the Timceus, says, " An island existed in that part of 
the sea lying beyond what you style ( the Columns of 
Hercules ;' that island was of greater extent than Asia 
or Africa, forming the medium of an easy communica- 
tion to islands more remote, from which, in turn, a pas- 
sage was easily effected to a continent situated in that 
direction, and in that part of the ocean properly de- 
nominated the Pontus." Aristotle, de Mirabil., states 
his belief, that " Outside the Herculean Columns, a 
fertile and uninhabited island was discovered by the 
Carthaginians, abounding in trackless forests, navi- 
gable rivers, and general richness of soil ; where, when 
they began to settle, their leaders, in order to prevent 
the participation of any other nation in the island, de- 
termined that such an intrusion should be deemed a 
capital offence ; and at the same time, proceeded to the 
extermination of the aboriginal inhabitants." Diodorus 
Sic. (lib. 5,) describes it thus : " At the distance west- 
ward of several days' sail from Africa, lies a large 
island of which the soil is fertile, and the surface un- 
dulated by mountains ; formerly unknown, on account 
of its exclusion from the rest of the world : the Phoe- 
nicians, at length, in one of their distant voyages in 
search of trade, discovered it : the knowledge thus ac- 
quired by them soon became common to others ; and 
the Tyrrheni, becoming sovereigns of the sea, intending 
to plant a colony there, were prevented by the Cartha- 
ginians." See also Pliny, Nat. Hist. c. 31 ; iElian, Var. 
Hist. 3, 18 ; Bochart, Geo. Sacr. ; Huet " On the Com- 
merce of the Ancients ;" and Seneca, Medea, the pas- 



HEROIC AGE — STATE OF SOCIETY. 129 

sage opening with 



" Veniet annis 



Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus 
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 
Pateat tellus." 

Whether all this tends to prove that the ancients 
knew any thing of the existence or position of America, 
I will not pretend to decide : the commentator on Virg. 
supra, seems to be of opinion that they did: at all 
events, it is evident that the Carthaginians were aware 
of a large tract of land in the remote West, the know- 
ledge of which they felt a reluctance to communicate, 
either on account of its present advantages, or future 
utility, in case of an unsuccessful war : and that in con- 
sequence of the difficulty experienced by other navi- 
gators, in their ill-directed attempts to discover it, it 
was at length believed to have been submerged in an 
earthquake, which belief it was the interest of the Car- 
ginians not to contradict, as will appear from the pas- 
sage immediately following that above quoted from 
Plato. 



CHAPTER XI. 

HEROIC AGE — STATE OF SOCIETY. 

"As one who has been journeying in the dark, begins, 
at length, to perceive the night breaking away in mist 
and shadow, so that the forms of things, yet uncertain 
and undefined, assume an exaggerated and gigantic out- 
line, half lost amid the clouds, so now through the ob- 
scurity of fable, we descry the dim and mighty outline 
of the heroic age. The careful and sceptical Thucy- 



130 HEROIC AGE — STATE OF SOCIETY. 

dides has left us, in the commencement of his immortal 
history, a masterly portraiture of the manners of those 
times, in which individual prowess elevates the pos- 
sessor to the rank of a demigod — times of unsettled 
law and indistinct control — of adventure — of excite* 
ment — of daring qualities, and lofty crime. We recog- 
nize in the picture features familiar to the North ; the 
roving warriors and pirate kings who scoured the seas, 
descended upon unguarded coasts, and deemed the exer- 
cise of plunder a profession of honour, remind us of 
the exploits of the Scandinavian Her-kongr, and the 
boding banners of the Dane. In early ages valour is 
the true virtue ; it dignifies the pursuit in which it is 
engaged, and the profession of a pirate was long 
deemed as honourable in the iEgean as among the 

bold rovers of the Scandinavian race The 

various tribes that passed into Greece to colonize or 
conquer, dislodged from their settlements many of the 
inhabitants, who, retreating up the country, maintained 
themselves by plunder, or avenged themselves by out- 
rage. The many crags and mountains which diversify 
the beautiful land of Greece, afforded their natural 
fortresses to these barbarous hordes. The chief who 
committed a murder, or aspired to an unsteady throne, 
betook himself with his friends to some convenient fast- 
ness, made a descent on the surrounding villages, and 
bore off the women or the herds, as lust or want ex- 
cited to the enterprise. No home was safe, no journey 
free from peril, and the Greeks passed their lives in 
armour. Then naturally arose the race of heroes — 
men who volunteered to seek the robber in his hold ; 
and by the gratitude of a later age, the courage of 
the knight-errant was rewarded with the sanctity of 
the demi-god. Hercules himself shines conspicuously 
forth the great model of those useful adventurers. 



HEROIC AGE STATE OF SOCIETY. LSI 

There is no doubt, that a prince so named actually 
existed in Greece, and, under the title of the Theban 
Hercules, is to be carefully distinguished both from 
the God of Egypt, and the peaceful Hercules of 
Phoenicia, whose worship was not unknown to the 
Greeks previous to the labours of his namesake. As 
the name of Hercules was given to the Theban hero, 
(originally called Alcseus,) in consequence of his ex- 
ploits, it may be that his countrymen recognized in his 
character, or in his history, something analogous to the 
traditional accounts of the Eastern God." — SirE.L. 
Bulwer. 

Herodotus (Euterpe 43, 11,) mentions a temple at 
Thasos to Hercules, erected by the Phoenicians, 500 
years before the era of the illustrious Theban. 

A condition similar to that of families, and not 
tending to political union, in which each father of a 
family governed his children alone, without standing 
in intimate connexion with the neighbouring circles, 
is ascribed by Homer to the Cyclops, (Od. t. 112, sq.) ; 
but that the Grecian states were developed from fa- 
mily unions, is attested by the political form of those 
unions which existed till a very late age, in several 
provinces of Greece, and are even mentioned by Homer, 
(II. j3. 362, KQivav^gag k.t.X.) A politically recognized 
rank in the common freemen, and legal rights in 
an individual of the lower order, flowing from, and 
guaranteed by it, are notions unknown to the poetry 
of heroic antiquity : he, whom the circle of the heroic 
nobility did not comprehend within it, occupied an 
intermediate station, [between wavering independence, 
and cliental servitude. The aggregate mass of the 
lower order was attached to the nobility, who were 
supported and raised by it, to heroic life and action. 
A particular mark of distinction was, that the nobility 



13*2 HEROIC AGE — STATE OF SOCIETY. 

resided in the citadel, and the lower classes in the 
country ; hence their denomination drifxog ; still this de- 
rmis was not expressly deprived of a legal station ; and 
the infancy of citizenship is especially exhibited in 
a participation in the public administration of justice, 
which may at least be assumed in matters of litigation 
between those of equal rank, as well as in the presence 
at the public assembly, of a body of armed warriors. 
Thereby, a line of demarkation was drawn between the 
mere citizen, and slaves and foreigners ; the second, 
either prisoners of war, or purchased from kidnappers ; in 
either case, Greeks or barbarians, they pertained to the 
domestic economy of individuals, {dfjLwlg juaAa pvpioi, 
Od. p. £22,) and but few appear to have been affected 
by slavery, as a state of misery brought about by vio- 
lent means (rjjiuo-v yap r aperrig cnroaivvTai zvpvoira Ztvg.) 
The reduction of earlier races to a state of bondage, as 
was afterwards the case with the Penestas and Heilots, 
cannot be proved with any certainty. The law of aliens 
was defined with tolerable accuracy. Emigrants, in- 
deed, were in general little esteemed (artjurjrov fxzTava<r- 
T7)v II. l. 644.) Every foreigner who presented him- 
self in a peaceful manner, was regarded as entitled to 
the hospitality of bed and board, and the protection by 
which it was accompanied : this was secured upon the 
public faith, as both the royal citadel afforded the 
guarantee of the state to the stranger, who found in it 
a reception, and shelter, and accommodation in the 
\£gXV> or Xo^-kum dojuLuj was publicly provided ; and 
these were most probably claimed by the following 
persons, in addition to the heroes, viz. : foreign work- 
men, (Qyitzq), soothsayers expressly summoned, priests, 
artists, and physicians, (Od. p. 385,) and lastly heralds, 
(Od. r. 135,) who, as such, were already regarded 
within the pale of protection. 



HEROIC AGE STATE OF SOCIETY. 133 

Merchants and beggars traversed the country, equally 
exempt from danger. Hospitality was, in a word, ex- 
hibitedin its strongest influence, in the treatment of those, 
who, strictly speaking, were a kind of outlaws. Fugitives 
from their countries, and victims of persecution, when they 
became suppliants for help, (iKirat,) were supposed to be 
under the protection ofZevg hitnog, during their flights 
under that of Zevg QvZiog, or at Orchomenos, Xa^ixnog ; 
extradition was never thought of (comp. Euripides, Me- 
dea, 725, sq.) Regular sanctuaries, however, appear to 
belong to a later age. The members of the aristocracy 
were designated either as the old (yipovrtg), the preemi- 
nent (z^oxot), or the best (apioTifee). In considering the 
various significations of the word ilpwg, our attention 
must be directed to the two extremes of the scale. In 
its most exalted meaning, the hero derives his name from 
Olympus, or is received into it, on the completion of 
his earthly career : in its secondary sense, every one is a 
hero, who in any respect whatever, rises above the 
multidude, for instance the herald, (Od. <j. 424). How- 
ever, this distinction of ranks, which in its principal 
features was solely directed to purity of race, and 
external honor, can by no means be regarded as a caste- 
like constitution such as that of the Hindoos, or .^Egyp- 
tians, which does not turn upon mere baseness or nobility 
of blood, but involves a separation in the other circum- 
stances of life. The names of the older Attic phylae, 
it is true, seem to indicate a separation between the 
military body, the priesthood, and the trades ; still, 
careful investigation would prove that the Attic poli- 
tical system of ranks did not resemble that of castes. 
Plato's remark "that priests and warriors had once 
been separate," (Critias, 100, c.) cannot be understood 
to refer to the heroic states, where the high-priesthood 
was associated with the princely office, and had a 



131* HEROIC AGE — GOVERNMENT. 

warlike character. The seers, Tiresias and Calehas, 
are separated from the wariors, but this is chiefly to be 
attributed to the notion which the ancients entertained 
of the prophetic faculty, which distinguished from the 
rest of the people the person in whom it appeared, and 
was therefore transmitted by succession through his 
family, (Od. 7r. 224?, sq. :) that this led to no separation 
of classes is proved in the instance of the soothsayer 
Melampus, who became a king, and of Amphiaraus who 
went as a warrior in his chariot. Thus, the assumption 
that sacerdotal families, (for instance, the Eumolpidse 
and Ceryces, at Athens,) in which certain worships were 
hereditary (Ovalai hpariKai) were not heroic, falls to 
the ground. Whatever rank, sanctity, or inviolability 
was attached to them, must have been the result of dig- 
nity of office, and of the fact, that it was administered 
by such as were too old for the service of arms. 
Moreover, warriors and husbandmen were not distinct ; 
the warriors at Troy were both. 

GOVERNMENT. 

'Apyeiojv fiaaiKrjEQ, oaoi KeKXrjaro. €ov\i'jv. — II. B. 
Ovk ayaObv noXvicoipavir], tig tcopiavog £<xro>. — II. B. 

In the political camp, before the walls of Troy, the 
heroes, for the most part, sovereign princes at home, 
stood towards Agamemnon in the relation of an aris- 
tocracy, (comp. Od. £. 34). A glance at the nation- 
ality of the Pelasgi, leads us to suppose, that a condition 
similar to that of families, and patriarchal government, 
prevailed among them. Another state of things arose 
with the Hellenic chivalry, and their contentious mili- 
tary chiefs. The erection of a citadel may have oc- 
casionally marked the commencement of an heroic 
monarchy : this was the case in the Trojan annals, 



HEROIC AGE GOVERNMENT. 135 

(II. <p. 216), and thus Herodotus (Clio, 98) states the 
building of the citadel of Ecbatana, and the foundation 
of the monarchy, to have been cotemporary. It has 
been already observed, that the authority of these 
heroic princes was purely monarchical ; every Grecian 
tradition relating to the origin of a state, begins with 
the unity of a political head. 

From II. a. 180, Od. a. 190, and Eurip. Androm. 
21, it would appear that physical as well as mental energy 
was required for the due fulfilment of the duties of this 
station, and that aged princes were usually super- 
annuated, and superseded by their sons. There existed 
no fixed or uniform standard to regulate succession to 
the throne ; it occasionally depended on primogeniture ; 
we frequently find examples of partition, Od. o. 208, 
or alternate government, as in the case of Eteocles, 
and Polynices, but never of joint government. The 
crown likewise descended in the female line, as in the 
case of Helen; but none, except legitimate children, were 
accounted eligible, and monogamy alone was customary. 
Orestes followed Menelaus to Sparta, as the latter had 
no children, except such as were born of slaves. The 
check exercised by the individual characters of the per- 
sons about the sovereign, like the chorus in tragedy, 
which is a transcript of it, appears as a permanent 
prerogative of the nobility ; as of the elders, II. y. 146, 
the men in the confidence of Priam, and the nobles 
about Alcinous, Od. tj. 98. 

The council of war assembled around Agamemnon, 
composed of the heroes at Troy, was of a different 
character; this was not convened for the affairs of the 
people, and the country, but for matters relating to a 
foreign expedition, and it cannot be regarded as an 
evidence of aristocracy. The lower order by no means 
assumed the character of a political body; it performed 



136 HEROIC AGE — GOVERNMENT. 

its political functions in quiet and obedience, and the 
expression of its acquiescence was conveyed by accla- 
mation, not by vote : the presumption of an individual 
met with a reception similar to that of Thersites. 

There is no vestige of an obligation on the prince 
to convoke either assembly within a given time ; an 
assembly might, however, be convened by a member of 
the council of nobles, II. «. 54: or it might be held 
without the presence of the prince, II. «r. 497, but the 
notion of a representation of the supreme power was 
not yet developed ; during the absence of Ulysses, the 
people were not once convoked, Od. /3. 15. The first 
instance that is recorded of the responsibility (svOuvrj) 
of the political functionaries, which afterwards so ge- 
nerally obtained, is probably the limitation of the power 
of Medon by the Athenian nobility. In the Odyssey, 
frequent allusion is made to the animadversions of the 
people, x a ^ £7n ? Sfifiov $i?ju«e o. 239. Peleus, Hercules, 
Orestes, &c, fled their countries on account of murders : 
this seldom happened, it is true, without a design to 
evade the penalty, but the chief impression byVhich they 
were actuated was, that divine punishment would not 
fail to overtake the man who should omit to effect his 
purification, and expiate his crime by flight. Finally, 
through the whole Odyssey we behold marked indica- 
tions of a struggle of the nobles, against the power of 
the prince. The Odyssey does not express that pro- 
found reverence for the princely dignity, which is so uni- 
formly the character of Iliad, and we miss especially the 
respect for the transmission of the same hereditary suc- 
cession, Od. a. 394. Among the Phaeacians, there were 
thirteen princely lines. In the conclusion of the Odyssey, 
the revenge of Ulysses throws its proper light on all 
that had preceded, even on the sentiment uttered by 
Telemachus during his degradation. As from this it 



HEROIC AGE— GOVERNMENT. 137 

might be proved, that the subjoined narrative, record- 
ing the warlike preparations of the Ithacans, against 
Ulysses, is spurious, an important light is thrown upon 
the question of the unity of the Odyssey. It may, at least, 
be safely asserted, that in the Odyssey are shadowed 
the incipient efforts of the nobility, against declin- 
ing monarchy. 

Under the head of the heroic age, must be comprised 
some statement of the historical position of the ante- 
Hellenic tribes, mentioned in Homer. 

The Pelasgi, (II. k. 429, Od. r. 177.) The earliest 
records of the Pelasgi place them in Peloponesus ; 
they appear to have originally overspread all Greece. 
According to the statement of Strabo, (5, 220, Kara rx\v 
"E\\a$a iraaav £7T£7roXa(T£,) Pelasgians did, at one time, 
occupy, besides Greece, the islands on the Asiatic coast, 
and the borders of the Hellespont, as far as Mycale : 
the oracles of Dodona and Delphi also belonged to 
them. Dardanus, the founder of Troy, was a Pe- 
lasgian, and born in Peloponesus ; they are recorded to 
have kept their ground longest in Arcadia, sc. to the end 
of the second Messenian war. Their dislodgment began 
about eight generations before the Trojan war. About 
a hundred years after this, new dynasties began to be 
established, sc. those of Danaus, Cecrops, &c, when 
migrations of the Pelasgi began to take place to Asiatic 
Ionia, and the islands ; their appearance in Asia, how- 
ever, is by some accounted for by aboriginal possession. 
Their existence in Italy was the result of three several 
migrations ; the first, under i^notrus, deified after 
death, under the name of Janus, and Peucetius, oc- 
curred about seventeen generations before the Trojan 
war ; the second, from Thessaly, arrived in time to 
assist their kinsmen against the Sicelians, whom they 

T 



138 HEROIC AGE — GOVERNMENT. 

succeeded in expelling to Sicily, then occupied by the 
Sicani, an Iberian tribe, who had also been driven on 
two occasions from the North by the Ligures, ac- 
cording to tradition, though their removal is attributed 
by Thucydides to the hostility of the Opici. The 
Thessalian Pelasgi themselves, having been expelled 
from their home by the Curetes and Leleges under 
Deucalion, possessed, conjointly with the colonists of 
iEnotrus, Caere, (or Agylla,) Pisa, Saturnia, and Al- 
sium, together with the territory of Campania, whence 
they had dislodged the Aurunci, and where they built 
a Larrissa, which name appears to have designated 
several settlements of the Pelasgi, (Vid. Hor. Carm. 
1, 7, 11.) The third migration was led to Italy by 
Evander, from Arcadia. They, in their turn, were com- 
pelled to evacuate Italy, about 1170, b. c, according to 
Dionysius, by the Tyrrheni, with whom they are some- 
times erroneously identified. 

The Leleges, are attributed as inhabitants to Locris ; 
their stronghold, however, was in Laconia ; they are 
also said to have been the predecessors of the Phoeni- 
cians in Bceotia ; they left their home in Asia also, 
where their presence is attributed to the same cause 
as that of the Pelasgi, like whom too they eventually dis- 
appeared before the Hellenes, having, however, partly 
incorporated with them. 

The Caucones originally inhabited the western re- 
gions of Peloponesus, and, according to Homer, Asia : 
Strabo places them in Paphlagonia. 

The Dry opes, a cotemporary tribe, inhabited Mount 
i^Eta, till their removal by Hercules. 

The Carians differed from all these, in being indi- 
genous in the maritime districts, on the east of Greece, 
the islands, and the Asiatic sea-coast. 



HEROIC AGE — EARLY HISTORY. 139 

The Hellenes, who succeeded, and from their heroic 
form of government, which, through Homer, became 
the most popular and prevailing, superseded all these, 
were, at the first, the occupants of a single town in 
Phthiotis ; and in this sense the name is used in II. v. 
530. By Hesiod and Archilochus, it was first applied 
in its more extended signification ; to this extension, it 
must, therefore, have become entitled between the 
Trojan war, and the aera of Hesiod. 

EARLY HISTORY. 

The first historic records of the heroic age of Greece, 
not including oral traditions, through which channel 
the archives of the land are generally believed to have 
flowed for thirteen centuries, are those of the Cyclian 
Poets. 

Composition in prose began with the invention 'of 
alphabetic writing, previously to the introduction of 
which about six centuries b. c, it was used merely 
for the purpose of conversation. The first prose writers, 
or rather the first writers, were Pherecydes of Scyros, 
Acusilaus of Argi, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Hecatseus 
and Dionysius, both of Miletus, of whom the latter fl. 
in the sixth 01., (520, b. c.,) and immediately preceded 
Herodotus, whose works form, as it were, the penumbra 
between the Epos and history, as Homer himself stands 
on the boundary between the romance of heroic chi- 
valry, and the actual of prosaic life. The Cyclian 
poets, and the early prose writers, were the sources 
whence Anaximenes of Lampsacus, who flourished in 
the reign of Alexander the Great, and Diodorus Sicu- 
lus, cotemporary with Julius Caesar, drew the ma- 
terials of the first books of their histories. 

The earliest formation of a legislative constitution, 



140 HEROIC AGE — EARLY HISTORY. 

which must in that age have been of a military cha- 
racter, is attributed to Minos, younger brother of 
Rhadamanthus, both leaders of a body of Asiatic in- 
vaders, who introduced and established among the 
aboriginal Cretans their own more civilized institutions, 
among which is reported to have been the prototype 
of the Spartan pheiditia. Of the most prominent 
services of Minos, was the suppression of piracy (prin- 
cipally Phoenician) on the Grecian seas, and the con- 
sequent naval supremacy of the Cretans. Homer 
mentions five tribes of Cretans. The first powerful 
and flourishing city of the Greeks, was Sicyon, founded 
by JEgialeus, the brother of Phoroneus, beyond whom, 
according to Plato, Greek history does not extend. 
Inachus, the first monarch of the kingdom of Argos, 
whose foreign origin has been transmitted, in the fable 
of his being the son of Ocean, was the father of these 
two. The chronological order of these dynasties is, 
according to Archbishop Ussher : Sicyon flourished 
2089, b. c; Argos, 1856, b. c. : and Minos, 1406, 
b. c. ; and according to Sir I. Newton, Sicyon flourished 
1080, b. c. ; Argos, 1080, b. c. ; and Minos, 1000, b. c. 
The other influential city of antiquity was Ephyra, 
(Corinth.) The opulence and renown of the (subse- 
quent) capital of Achaia was a direct consequence of 
its situation on the Isthmus, between the Corinthian 
and Saronic Gulfs, becoming thus the medium of inter- 
course between Northern and Southern Greece, and 
the Eastern and Western Seas. The advantages of 
this position were still enhanced by the nature of its 
more immediate locality. A ridge of mountains, about 
three miles in length, rises to a height remarkable 
even in a land of lofty mountains ; of this the northern 
extremity forms the summit ; three sides are nearly 
perpendicular, and even on the fourth the ascent is 






LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 141 

far from gradual ; on this formidable site rose Acro- 
corinthus, and beneath and around grew the city, (II. 
j3. 570.) 

The Southern Peninsula, first occupied and re- 
claimed by Apis, apparently a Pelasgian, who de- 
scended from iEtolia, was not peopled as early as the 
northern countries, which were the habitation of the 
Pelasgi, a*s far north as the Strymon. 

The immortality of Corinth, is thus beautifully com- 
memorated by Lord Byron. 

" Many a vanished year and age, 
And tempest's breath, and battle's rage, 
Have swept o'er Corinth ; yet she stands, 
A fortress formed to freedom's hands. 
The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock, 
Have left untouched her hoary rock, 
The key-stone of a land, which still 
Tho' fall'n, looks proudly on that hill, 
The landmark to the double tide 
That purpling rolls on either side, 
As if their waters chafed to meet, 
Yet pause, and crouch beneath her feet."' — Siege of Corinth. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 



The source and time of the formation of the Greek 
alphabet, are equally unknown. The traditions respect- 
ing Cadmus, Palamedes, &c, rest on foundations too 
slight to form the basis of a theory. The author of 
the Odyssey speaks of Cadmus, as the father of the 
deified Leucothca, without any allusion to his origin 



142 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

or nativity; the celebrated Cadmei, the founders of 
Thebes, are mentioned by the more ancient poet, in 
terms equally vague : they were a race distinct from 
the Danai or Achaei ; but it is widely inconsistent with 
the habits of that age, that the Phoenicians, a maritime 
people, should have planted a colony in a district so 
far inland. The poet appears altogether ignorant of 
the Cadmus ; had he been aware of his existence, and 
that of the Cadmei, as his posterity, he would have 
employed as their appellation, the correctly-formed 
patronymic tcad/M^ai, not tcadfidoi. Casmilus, or Cad- 
milus, was an ancient name of Mercury, and Cadmus 
was, most probably, no other ; in this confusion of 
identity, he is said to have married Harmonia, the 
daughter of Mars and Venus, and with her, to have 
been metamorphosed into a snake, and attached to 
the caduceus ; a religious and mystic allegory(13). Of 
Palamedes no mention occurs in either poem, whence 
the inference is natural, that no prince of that name 
went to Troy, and therefore, that any inventions at- 
tributed to him are fictions of a later age. Equally 
uncertain are the traditions respecting the double 
letters ; the earliest use of them by the Athenians is 
dated at 01. 96, 4, in the Archonship of Euclides ; 
hence, 17 julIt 'EvkXh^v ypafAfiaTitcri, signifies " an im- 
proved style of writing." Euripides, who died fourteen 
years before this date, employed r\ and 0, in a tragedy 
composed a considerable time previously ; \p and o> were 
written by Callias, an author of old comedy, who pre- 
ceded Sophocles by some years. On some Thracian 
and Macedonian coins, which, from their shape, being 
quadrangular, could not have been struck more re- 
cently than the fifth or sixth century, b. c. rj and io 
are engraved ; and on others V, the original form of Y. 
On the coins of the Macedonian kings, the old language 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 143 

may be traced down to the asra of Philip, the son of 
Amyntas, who introduced and transmitted to his succes- 
sors the use of the Attic. Though the assertion may at 
first sight appear startling, it will be found that the 
languages of the ancient Latins, Etrurians, and Osci, 
are the sources to which are to he traced the real form 
and genius of the language of Homer. Of its original 
structure, the ignorance of transcribers and emenda- 
tors has suffered nothing to remain, but the metre, and 
a few traces of grammatical analogy. It is demonstra- 
ble, that neither epenthesis, metathesis, or any other 
grammatical figures, were employed in the formation 
of the Homeric language. That which renders any 
inquiry after the real state of the text perplexing, is, 
that the Greek language was, at the time of the com- 
position of his poems, in a state of transition. 

"The Greek language/'saysHeyne, "has had the sin- 
gularly good fortune of havingbeen cultivated through the 
medium of poetry, before prose had received or claimed 
any attention ; and hence, that unparalleled sweetness 
and elegance, from the softening of consonants, and the 
greater frequency of the concourse of vowels, which 
constitute the debt of grammar to the licenses and 
exigencies of poetical construction. Even after Homer, 
a considerable richness and variety of syntax, pre- 
sented in the compositions of the lyric and dramatic 
writers, took their rise, to which alterations and transi- 
tions, the final accession was made in the numerus 
of oratorical euphony, substituting for diaereses, con- 
tractions and diphthongs : the Tonic pronunciation, 
however, (to instance by a verbal termination,) ea, ee, 
fcv, must have fallen more softly on the ear, than the 
corresponding Attic ei, dv, 17, r? ; so that even the Ionic 
form of the second sing, si, for r?, was retained." On 
this subject the established belief among scholars is, 



144 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

that this language is not to be considered a congeries 
of different dialects ; but, that in it are to be found 
the germs of all those varieties, which subsequently 
diverged into them ; and that it was the proper language 
of Epic poetry, as the old Attic was of dramatic, alone 
suited to the style of expression, and metre of the 
Epos, for which it was fashioned. Writers on dialects, 
when illustrating the ./Eolic, have judiciously taken 
their instances from Homer, and, though with less dis- 
crimination, have drawn their specimens of Attic from 
the same source ; and these poems do certainly contain 
many of the characteristics (for such they eventually 
became) of iEolic, Doric, Ionic, and Attic. These 
varieties were for a time supposed to have been ac- 
quired by Homer, in a series of travels, and blended 
with his native dialect, whatever that was ; but that 
will appear the truer philology, which discovers in 
them the cognate forms of one, the same language ; 
when it is forced on the observation, that the several 
steps of the same language, in its progress from bar- 
barism to refinement, have originated the idea of a 
diversity ; and that by the iEolic should be understood 
the primitive language of all Greece, at a time when 
the distinctions of aioXig, 'lag, and arOig were yet un- 
known. 

In this progression, each preceding generation 
of forms contained the germs of the next succeeding; 
for these innovations in the usages of a language are 
never but gradual, and many new forms of expression 
start into being before their predecessors have yet 
died away ; thus in the .ZEolic are to be found Ionic 
forms, and in the Ionic, old Attic. To mark definitely 
the limits of any one, would require an accuracy of 
distinction capable of determining the boundary be- 
tween light and shade. We have whatever authority 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 1 45 

accompanies the assertion of the Pseudo-Herodotus, 
to support the claim of an iEolic origin for Homer, 
but in any case the iEolic and early language of 
Greece are in general understood to be identical. 
The generally alleged cause of the blending of the 
supposed different dialects, is the series of migrations 
consequent upon the descent of the Heraclidse on 
Peloponesus, which produced so indiscriminate an 
intercourse between the iEolic and Ionic (Attic) tribes, 
resulting from the proximity of their Asiatic settle- 
ments. Of the loss of the genuine dialect of Homer, 
Mr. Knight, in addition to the remarks at the opening 
of this chapter, says, " it cannot be a matter of wonder, 
if the work of transcription began so recently, (as the 
age of Pisistratus,) that the Alexandrine grammarians 
had derived so little information from their copies, 
when the transcribers who had taken them from the 
recitations of rhapsodists, and were neither solicitous, 
nor well informed in matters of antiquity, had used either 
their own respective dialects, or those of the rhapso- 
dists, any of which must have been considerably al- 
tered from the true text, and that to such a degree, 
that not even in the oldest copy in the library, were 
they likely to find the digamma ; nor, had they met it 
in the Argive or Cretan copy, would they have con- 
sidered it anything but an absolute character, peculiar 
to a barbarous dialect, altogether inconsistent with the 
polished elegance of Homer. 

" It was only from abbreviated inscriptions cut on 
laminaa, or stone, that the natural features of the old 
language could have been ascertained, and from such 
alone could any law be deduced, agreeably to which, 
from a comparison of copies, and metrical analogy, one 
uniform, genuine, and whole edition could be compiled ; 
but the system of revision acted on by the ancient 

u 



14G LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

critics, was remotely different. Of the inscriptions 
which still exist, there is scarcely one which I would 
venture to refer to any earlier date than that of Pisis- 
tratus, for on the most ancient coins, none of which can 
boast of antiquity much more remote, a single character 
stands for the name of a nation; the letters which are 
few, are all initial, and no inscription whatever of the 
age of Homer can be looked for. Of these which are 
in existence, the most genuine are naturally such as 
were found among less civilized nations, where the old 
language was likely to remain unadulterated ; to this 
class belongs the Heraclean table, cut about the end of 
the fourth century, b. c, and presenting a dialect which 
approximates most to the original language. Were it 
possible to institute a search through the ruins of 
Peloponesus, Bceotia, and Phocis, others would pro- 
bably be found no less ancient, the relics of a genera- 
tion equally unrefined and unsophisticated." 

Other authors of antiquity, by leaving in their 
writings some mention of themselves and their coun- 
tries, have given clues to the inquirers after their 
respective ages ; but the author of the Iliad and Odys- 
sey, by refraining altogether from autobiographical 
allusion, has bequeathed to the lovers of his name, and 
admirers of his genius, all the excitement of uncertainty, 
respecting the time and place marked by his existence. 
From the genius of his language, however, and the 
quantities of some syllables, the inference is obvious, 
that the author of either poem (if they were not identi- 
cal) preceded Hesiod, for the same process of advance- 
ment is common to all languages : all progressing from 
the more resolved and uneven, to the more contracted 
and equable. On this principle especially, the Iliad 
appears referrible to an earlier date than the Odyssey. 
The same simple delineation of manners, the same air 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER, M7 

of antique grandeur and natural grace pervades both ; 
yet some forms of expression in the Odyssey sound 
like the echo of a more advanced stage of civilization. 
The use of the phrases xQ y H ULara (f ov KTWHara of the 
Iliad,) Xivxv, /3u/3X«i/oe otvog (of the ^Egyptian by- 
blis,) Qt)TEvw, implying the idea of voluntary and mer- 
cenary slavery : an intermediate caste between the 
freeman and slave, both absent from, and inconsistent 
with the state of society, pourtrayed in the Iliad. 
Other words, present in both poems, assume a more 
modern (contracted) form in the Odyssey, and bear the 
impress of the first footsteps of that regularity, and 
polish which characterize the Attic dialect. To this 
class belong vujvvfioc;, for the more ancient vwvvimvog, 
(itself contracted from the participial form vojw/uvoq ;) 
Biairig for Qwrciaioq ; aypolrr^g for aypoiwr^g ; rjovg, 
cont. gen. of riwg, for r]6og; Soaro for SoaaaaTO ; the 
monosyllabic forms for klol and Kpla ; reOvtwg and 
TTBnrewg for the forms rt9vt]U)g and it^ttt^wq ; for yzpaufj 
which in the Iliad is a trisyllable, is substituted in the 
Odyssey ypdiri, ypr\vg and yprjvg, which originally 
ypafvg is the parent of the Latin gravis ; hence the 
forms yzpaFbg, &c, should be restored to the Iliad, 
In the construction of sentences, little difference is 
perceptible, it may, however, be remarked, that the 
conjunction £7rrjv is constructed with an indicative in 
the Odyssey, which is altogether foreign from the 
Iliad. Many of those forms, both of verbs and nouns, 
which have been considered dialectic varieties of the 
common forms, are those parts which happen to have 
occurred, and remain of forms since obsolete, as larlri. 
nop^aXtg, rafxvu), 7rTw(j(jtiv, SvatTo, firjtJETo, which latter 
Thiersch and Buttmami erroneously consider to be 
forms of the first aor. mid., and are really imperfect 
tenses from lixropai, and />/;<ro/ifu, of the same class 



148 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

with ohtetb from 6i<ji*). Heyne and Burgess consider 
all second aorists to be the imperfects of obsolete 
verbs. To this class also belong oikciSe and QvyaSz, 
accusatives of the obsolete 01% and ${>%, as in the com- 
mon dialect yvvaiKa, from the obsolete ywalZ ; Scurvog 
and SatTriQ, genitives of obsolete forms of Salg ; Kapr\a- 
TOg, Kapr]Tog, and Kparbg ; TroXiog and iroXsog ; vitcvg 
and vEKpbg ; aX/a and ajcXr} ; avXig and avXrj ; viorog 
and vara ; fxaariv and \xacmya ; avTi<paTr\a and avrt- 
<f>a.Ty)g ; sSrjruoc and £§0)^77 ; da'ldeg and ctarcu ; e^etpaSet' 
and a&eipai ; rifxara and rtfxspa 1 kovlt} and »covt£ j kp? 
and KptOai ; ?r t crup sc and rso-o-apec 5 7T£X«ae and TrlXsta; 
TroXirjTag and TroXirai ; (JjeiSojXti and (peida) ; (frrifxtg and 
^rj/irj ; ^u£*v and ^vyi? ; XP 0L1 'l anc ^ Xi°^£ 5 Gimvai and 
0£a ; Qvpiov, Ovpcrpa, and 0upat ; kX'iglov and kXigiyi : 
u7r£jOwVovandu7T£jOwoy ; ^L^(jovir\dr]v and SiSwvoe; StSovec 
and StScJviOi; crooc and cue; Sjuwat and S/xw£c; Sa/cpuov 
and Sa/cpi> ; dicrfiara and $£07104 ; KzXevOa and kIXeu^oc ; 
ovap and ovapoc ; 7rpo0vpata and irpoQvpa ; Trpoawiraai 
and 7rpo(7W7roc ; apvfioc and apse (of which no singu- 
lar appears ;) ^vio^a and ?5vioxoc J trjrfjpoe and \r\Tpog ; 
via, t/iea and vtov ; MfXav^u? and MtXav&oe ; Ilarpo- 
jcXiJa and Harpo/cXac* (from an obs. nom. Ilarpo*<X?je>) 
and JlarpoicXoc. Many differences in syllabic quantity 
are to be attributed to the different wants of the epic 
and tragic metres, as KaXog and laog Homeric : KaXog 
and Xaog Attic : the abbreviation of several quantities 
produced in the Attic, as the accus. plur. of the first 
decl. ag; a in XXa.og ; tin the oblique cases of iXevaric, in 
Kovtr], Xlt)v, fxvpiKYi, opvig, StSovfc, and in the most re- 
duplicated forms always in those longer than trisyllabic* 
except 7rl(j>av(jK(x}, II. k. 478. A variation occurs in the 
quantity of u (to be accounted for by such an use of 
the digamma, as Dawes exemplifies in the case of Xvio) 
visible in aXvu), Ijoqruw, ironrvvto, IQulo, A difference is 






LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 1 19 

observed between Qvw with a long and that with a short 
penultima, the former said to signify sacrificor, the latter 
insanio. The terminations arm and aro in the third plural 
perfect and pluperfect passive, for vtcil and vto, have 
been evidently resorted to for the formation of dactyls. 
Many short vowels, initial and medial, are rejected for 
similar purposes, sc. to form GTaxvg, areao-m), yXctKTO<j)a- 
yog, iXam, KEivog, 'iKtXog, TTEpiTrXofiivog, iK/nEvog, &C. To 
this cause also are referrible many other varieties of 
orthography, sc, the contraction of the Attic futures 
from a<rto, ecrw, and ogw : the exclusion from the law of 
this contraction of such futures as would not, when 
contracted, end in an iambus, proves the cause to be no 
other than this, i. e. those futures only which have a 
short ante-penultima, are so abbreviated ; and forms in 
taw being capable of no further contraction than into tw, 
which would present the same number of times, remain 
unaltered. To this, in like manner are to be traced, forms 
which retain at, si, 01, w, and ov, vestiges of the digamma, 
where the later dialects assume a, e, and o, as liXaTivog, 
SeUXog, KStvog, vreivbg, Girziog, "xpuog, Xayuog, Aimvv- 
aog, opes/ewe? aXwrj, Owrj, liarj, yovvara, Sovpara, ouXojUe- 
vog, ouXiog, TrovXvg, fyotviog, aXoia, iroia, \poiri,, &c. 
To this partly, and partly to euphony, are to be attribu- 
ted the insertion and omission of consonants, as /a in 
a/mfipOTOg, (pataifJifipOTog ; a in lyxEcnraXog, (jctKsairaXog, 
6£(T<l>aTog, Ota-rig, and before the final <})lv; r, as in 
TTToXig, TTToXtfiog ; /3, as /mtfifiXsTai, /u£/i/3Xwke ; 0, in 
fiaXOciKog, StxOa; the transposition of pas in aTapwiTog, 
for ciTpair., fiaadiGTog, for /3paS. : Opaaog for dap., re- 
tained by the tragic poets ; the duplication of conso- 
nants, particularly liquids, as aXXr\Krog, TpiXXtarog, 
iXXUirov, zfifxevcu, 1'u/uf.izXiag, fjjiXofXfjiaSrjg, avvt(piXog, 
tvveirt, ayavvujiog, KaTUfifjLov ; and of a, as in oacrov, 
7rp6(j(jLo, Ivtfucrcya, &c. The duplication of a in the 



150 LANGUAGE OF HOMER 

dative plural, (for the formation of dactyls,) is generally 
preceded by a duplication of the c, as in ox&avi, /3s- 
Xieacrt, &c, but this occurs only when the interposi- 
tion of the additional vowel creates a second short 
syllable before am ; for instance, this addition is not 
made in such words as orij0£o-<rt. The primitive and 
unsophisticated language is that which Homer him- 
self calls the language of the Gods, of which he retains 
some specimens, Bpmp£ wv, t^wp, ^aXia^a, and a/nfipoata, 
from j3pow, /3opw, (voro,) as fiporog in a similar meta- 
thesis from jLLoprog. The ornative quality of words, 
commonly obsolete, will be easily perceived by the 
instances of our own poets, Milton and Thompson. 
From analytical investigation of the many and various 
forms of inflexions, both of verbs and nouns, it is 
capable of demonstration, that they are all forms of 
one common dialect: the identity of a considerable 
number is discoverable from a knowledge of the effect 
of the digamma : the substitution of t] for a and £ before 
vowels, is the result of its removal, as r)i\cog f from 
aFzXiog, the contraction of which produces the common 
form: a remarkable instance of this appears in the 
termination uov eFlqv, t^ov, as in ^uvrfiov, Zwijiov, 
irapi]iov } &c: the extension of £ into a, and o into 01 
and ov, is probably attributable to the same cause : 
the prothesis of the syllabic augment, instead of the 
temporal, to an initial vowel is to be referred to the 
original identity of both augments, the latter being but 
a contraction of the former, which was at first the only 
augment. In tracing the augment to its origin, it must 
be observed, that the same character originally repre- 
sented the long and short E, and the long and short O : 
the augmented tenses were, at first, combinations of aux- 
iliaries and participles, thus iXLyov was ijv Xtytov, &c. 
We find many examples of this inflexion in those poems, 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 1 51 

as tstsXeo jitivov zgtui, a fut. TSTeXeofxtvov iUv, p. perf. : 
it is also more than conjecture, that the quantities of 
syllables, originally arbitrary, were fixed by the usage 
of the poets, as will be perceived to have been the case 
in the older writers of our own language ; and this will 
account for the alternations of long and short, dupli- 
cated and single vowels ; the difference in sound be- 
tween the former pair, being exactly identical with that 
between the latter : to this system of arbitrary dupli- 
cation belongs the prefixture of e to words beginning 
with that vowel, both nouns and verbs, as hnrov, lASaip, 
If/oarr), where the hiatus was removed by the inser- 
tion of F. Akin to this is the interchange of at and o, 
in the preposition vrrai, v~b ; the primitive form ap- 
pears to have been vna, like napa and Kara, which also 
assume the (, for the purpose of producing the syllable; 
this extension for this cause, takes place before mutes 
only, (with a few exceptions in favour of X, as irapai 
\cnraQi)v, the liquids possessing in themselves a pro- 
ducing power, as vtto pnrrig, and this is still further 
confirmed by the fact, that before two consonants, 
this elongation is never resorted to. Many words, 
generally considered to be dialectic varieties, are de- 
ducible from obsolete forms, of which the other parts, 
not occurring in the old poets, have been lost. Among 
these is to be classed that form commonly called the 
Ionic gen. of the second declension oio ; this declension 
in its primitive form was, N. oc, G. oo, D. ot, &c. : from 
the gen. oo, which becomes, by contraction, the com- 
mon gen. ov, came 0F0, and after the suppression of 
F, its place was filled by i, hence oio, which, by elision 
of the final vowel, originated the Latin gen. in i of 
the second declension. To the system of optional ab- 
breviation and elongation, may be referred the concep- 
tion of the modal vowels of the Subjunctive »i and w, 



152 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

as well as the inconsistency in the quantity of v, (Comp. 
Od. i. 398, a\vi>)v, and II. w. 12; II. w. 475, and or. 
421 ; or. 175, and X 522, &c.,) and the abbreviation of 
diphthongs, both in sound and form, as fiaQ£r\g for 
fiaQur\g, Qr\\£ag for OrjXdag ; j3oXo/xcu for j3ouXojuat, 
(which, according to Dr. Buttman, was the original 
orthography, the syllable being merely elongated, and 
there being no distinction between o, v, and w ; hence, 
the Spartans, for the negative ov, used 6 ;) otog and 
viog, with their first syllables short. This principle 
may be more fully illustrated by a review of the de- 
clensions and conjugations, as they appear in Homer, 
compared with their more modern forms. 

Declensions. In the primitive language, all nouns 
increased in the genitive case, either by the addi- 
tion of a syllable, or the division of the final syl- 
lable into two, as oCofxa-arog, Bifiig, lgtoq, KEpav-arog, 
rpifipriQ, tog, &c, &c. The termination toq appears 
to have belonged to the gen. of all nouns ending 
in ig, but to have been variously altered into irog, 
1$og, idog and log : of this latter the Attic ewg was 
a corruption, from which, in its turn, grammarians, 
ignorant of the old form, and perceiving a necessity for 
a long syllable, formed the monstrous termination yog : 
this, however, appears to have been rather cautiously 
resorted to, for Gregory, Bishop of Corinth, a gramma- 
rian of the age of the Comneni, writes ttoXioc, not rroXriog. 
In no language can contracted syllables be resolved 
into any other elements, than those which composed 
them ; in Attic Greek, therefore, a and ov, contracted 
from tci, or ee, ao, or £0, should, whenever a dissyllable 
is required, be resolved into sa, or ss, ao or so, not 
into u and ov ; thus, Kparog is resolvable into Kaparog, 
not Kpaarog, as /3Xf/ro into ]3oX£ro ; the resolution of <u 
into ow, not ao, is equally incorrect. Nouns in ig have 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 153 

a double termination in the accusative i$a and iv, both 
which have descended from the same source, for in 
Latin, the accusative of nouns of this termination ends 
in iden, which, in Greek letters and pronunciation, 
would be fSfv, originally tdav, and by an elision of v, 
iSa, or tdv, iv : the termination of the Latin gen. idis, 
is a change produced by an iotacism, from the primi- 
tive form, which was os, as veneros, cereros, lionoros, 
which became veneris, &c. Of iotacism in Latin, 
many traces remain ; the name Mithradates, from Mi- 
thras, so spelt in inscriptions, and on coins, became in 
all writers Mithridates ; and the Greeks of the present 
day pronounce rj, v, a, ot, and vi, as i. Though no ar- 
bitrary changes are admissible in the pronunciation of 
any language, yet, in unfinished dialects, these letters 
which are nearly allied in sound, are easily inter- 
changed, particularly such as are of a rough guttural 
sound, as a, p, F, and F, as /jlovgoFwv, fiovaahwv, mu- 
sasum, musarum; where the change in the first syl- 
lable arose from the absence of o from the Etrurian 
alphabet ; thus, too, the ancient Latins, for erunt, 
Jnijus, and inchoandi, &c, wrote erihont or erifont, 
ruins, incroandi, &c. Plautus, for gnaros writes gua- 
rures, whence regularly comes the gen.gnarorum, which 
in Greek letters would be yvaooFwi', or jvaFofiov. 

First Declension. — Genitives and datives sing, ending 
in <pt and $iv, and datives plur. in m and mv, are vesti- 
ges of the primitive forms of declension, which were 
inflected by pronominal terminations, (in these cases 
aflat, it being, as jxoi and roi, used expletively,) these 
forms are sometimes considered to be traces of the di- 
gamma, sc. twr)<l>i, IvvrjFt, lvvr\i, \vvij, for which an 
analogy is discoverable in the gen. masc. of this and 
the second declension, sc. aFo, a&>, <u, and with the 
mute f, tw ; in the second 0F0, oo, oio, &c. : in Homer's 

x 



154 LANGUAGE OP HOMER. 

time the F had disappeared from the gen. and dat. 
sing, of feminines in a, so that they are monosyllabic. 
The terminations ag, a, and tig of patronymics and 
verbal nouns, descended from the same source ; their 
genitives aog and sog, ao and to, contracted to ovg and 
ov, all came from aFog ; the contracted forms ovg and 
ov, do not appear in Homer. 

With respect to that in a, the old masculine form, 
it has been affirmed by some grammarians, " that they 
are vocatives used by the iEolians for the nom." ! 
Upon this doctrine i^Emilius Portius has improved ; he 
very critically remarks, that " they are Macedonic forms 
for rig" !! Concerning these primitive forms (for such they 
are,) it may be laid down as a canon, that of such as 
have a trochaic termination, the penultima being long 
by nature or position, whose later forms in r\g are pa- 
roxytone, some are proparoxytone, others properispo- 
menu ; while some appear with the accentuation assumed 
by the newer forms, and their genitives in a, being cut 
short from ao, adopt the same accent as if their final 
voivel had been elided to avoid hiatus; the gen. plur. 
is afiov, (whence the old Latin gen. plur. ALUM, or 
AVUM, recentius, arum,) awv, cont. tjv, into which, 
like the gen. sing., the silent e has been inserted, as 
iraaawv, iraaCov, iraaiwv; this, in the Doric dialect became 
av ; but in the Attic, the feminine of this case is simi- 
larly accented with the masculine, whenever they are 
similarly spelt. Of the dual of this declension, no 
gen. or dat. appears in Homer. Of the termination (j>i, 
<r(j)i, Mr. Knight says, " that final syllable, called by 
grammarians the paragogic $1, seems to have taken the 
place of Ft, in the dat. sing., though indeed it also be- 
longed to the gen. ; in old Latin inscriptions, Fi is 
similarly placed : but this was not the more modern 
sound of F : respecting the forms bpzofyi, 6\e'<r<£t, va- 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 155 

rious opinions prevailed, some having taken them for 
datives plur. by epen thesis of <j> : others for the gen. 
sing, by syncope of o, and paragoge of $1 : but, though 
the (j> might have been substituted for the second <r, the 
dat. plur. will not always suit the syntax." 

Second Declension. — Of this, having undergone 
comparatively few alterations, but little is to be re- 
marked. Several nouns of this declension, noticed 
above, which are masculine and feminine in the singular, 
assume apparently a neuter in the plural ; but these, as 
already explained, come from what were originally 
different nominatives singular. Neuters in tov are not 
diminutives in Homer. The same words in different 
declensions and genders, are sometimes applied to dif- 
ferent modifications of the same ideas, as Z>vy bg and 
Zvybv, " the bridge of a lyre," and a " cattle-yoke." 
The change of the termination aog into eojg is con- 
sidered a peculiarity of the Attic dialect : its iambic 
form recommended it to the Attic poets, in preference 
to aog, which is trochaic, and therefore, more suited 
to dactylic measure. The syllable 01, is in other cases 
in the genuine parts of Homer, always long ; but the 
Ionic gen. 010 is always so placed, that its penultimais 
the first syllable of a foot, and therefore, though natu- 
rally short, long by ictus : the final o is, of course, al- 
ways short: of every accus. plur., the original termina- 
tion was ag: the accus. plur. of this declension, is 
therefore a contraction : thus, ofag, oag, ovg. 

Third Declension. — In nouns of this declension, a di- 
versity of nominative forms appears, but the casual ter- 
minations have been less changed from their primitive 
forms, than those of the preceding two : in this few 
peculiarities occur more than such contractions or 
elongations, as must appear to be the natural conse- 
quences of dactylic versification, sc. Otfiig, Bin 



156 LANGUAGE OF HOMElt. 

OijuiTog, and elong. OifucrTog; icopvg, KvpvQog, cont. 
icopvog, Kopvv, and icopvOa, which suggests the idea of 
a double line of inflexion ; Ktpag, Kepara, Kipaa 9 and 
cont. Kspa ; \\C) for lx<*>p ; aXcpi for aXtyirov ; Sa> for 
Sw/xa, &c. — nouns in ap make their gen. sing, in arog, 
a\d(f>ap-aTog ; ovOap-ctTog. It has been shewn above, 
that o- and p were on some occasions interchangeable, 
which hypothesis will give to this inflexion an appear- 
ance of primitive regularity ; thus, ovQap, ovOag, i. e. 
ovOarg, (another consonant being frequently omitted 
before the final g } ) ovOarog; ovSag makes in the gen. 
toe, dat. a. Nouns in evg have two lines of inflexion, 
running through all the cases, from the two genitives 
eog and t]og, contracted in the nom. plur. (but not in 
Homer) to stg, and rig. Mr. Knight says, " nouns in 
evg have retained in Homer the original forms of all 
the oblique cases : no contraction occurs except in the 
dat. plur. ; thus, tFg, G. eFog, D. eFi, A. eFa, V. sF, 
D. N. A. V. efe, G. D. eFoiv, P. N. sFec, G. eFwv, D. 
eFeai or eFai, A. sPag, V. eFec. In this declension we 
find that the syllable ev (eF) is never separated by 
diaeresis, from which we can infer that both were not 
originally vowels ; the only instance of a contraction 
in the accus. sing, is Zeitv, (^Eschrion. Sam. Epigram.) 
and thus, or in its old form, §<tzvv or SaeFctv, (as irapiv 
from napida,) it ought to supersede Zrjv', which is 
vulgarly and erroneously written as if the final vowel 
were elided, or the syllables so divided, that the va were 
to belong to the following line. From this termination 
are formed patronymics, in tFidrjg, or eFidag, («&?e or 
udag ;) but in Pindar, and the Doric and iEolic poets 
who used the digamma, the t and t are always sepa- 
rated in sound. 

Nouns in uc, and u, appear to have formed their 
genitives, according to analogy, in vFog ; thus, in the 



LANGUAGE OF HOMEK. 157 

obsolete Latin declension, we find pec uva in the accus. 
contracted to pecua ; together with qucestuvis,fructuvis, 
&c, which became qucesttbus, fructibus, &c. ; F being 
among the Italians and Italiots represented by V or 
E ; the use of B too, for that letter, among the Lace- 
daemonians, Latins, &c, was not unusual ; for this 
reason, B occurs in sibi, tibi, nobis, vobis, &c, while in 
mihi, the aspirate took the place of the removed F : 
thus, also, the relative adverb ubi is formed from the 
dat. case of the relative pron. FoFt, (recentius Fan.) The 
Attics substituted, in the inflexion of nouns of this 
termination, ecjg for vfog, vog ; the vowels t and v, in 
dialects both ancient and modern, were interchange- 
able ; hence, in Etrurian incriptions are found indis- 
criminately Eelia, and JLelua; so in the present case, 
TTtXtKog, vog, tog ; 6%vg, vog, eog. That the gen. of this 
inflexion has a short penultima in Homer, may, at first 
sight appear a natural objection to this philology; but, 
from this, as from many other positions, the digamma 
had disappeared before the Homeric era, (vide Dawes, 
infra, on the producing power of the digamma.) 

Of masc. adjectives in vg, gen. vog, the fern, should, 
according to analogy be via : in the Attic Greek, 
this fern, became eia, m, and crj ; if it is not to be 
preferably deduced from another masc. form in r\g. 
A peculiar phenomenon is presented in the inflexion 
of nouns in v, sc. $6pv, yow, &c. : in Homeric Greek, 
their first syllables are short in the nom. sing., long in 
the oblique cases, Sopv, Sovpog, &c, the regular form 
being dopvog. According to the grammarians, this is 
produced by a metathesis ; but in Latin, though no 
metathesis is assumed, the same change of quantity is 
observable ; genu makes genua, a dissyllable contracted 
from (jeniwa, genua ; and the syllable thus derives its 
quantity from position : in Greek, the case is precisely 



158 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

the same. Of nouns in wg, the inflexion might natu- 
rally be inferred to have been ofog, ofi, &c, like bos 
bovis; if the penultima was long in all instances; but, 
as it is sometimes unquestionably produced by elision of 
other vowels, the uncertainty of what these may have 
been, reflects a doubt on any conjecture respecting the 
form of the nominative. Some of the old grammarians 
used to write fiivwvog, &c, for /nivwog, &c, on what 
authority cannot now be ascertained : the inflexions of 
proper names, however, seldom furnish any basis 
for analogy : perhaps, being fxivwg among the Cretans, 
it was /LLivwvQ among other nations : the source of both 
might have been jmivovg, which was the usual participial 
termination among the ancient Latins. <i>we-wroc, 
and xpuQ-wTOQi cannot properly be classed among 
nouns terminating in wg, being really Xi° w «C and <pioag : 
<t>iog " lux" on the contrary was (j>dog. which form it 
always bears in Homer. Fripwg, too, has the second 
syllable always long in the oblique cases in Homer, 
though short in Pindar. It appears from their coins, 
that the digamma was used even in medtis vocibus by 
the ancient Thebans. Heraclides, the most learned 
of the old grammarians, says, that in the dialects of the 
Argives and Cretans, and the ancient copies of Homer, 
participles in tig, from verbs in rjjut, originally ended in 
evg; and, though the concurrence of vg did grate upon 
the fastidious ears of the moderns, yet the forms of the 
Latin participles in the gen. antis, entis, and zmtis, 
corresponding to the Greek avrog, tvrog, and ovrog, 
shew the original forms to have been avg, evc» and 
ove, which, by the omission sometimes of er, sometimes 
of v, became oc, tig, and wv, as Tiring, rvtpOug, tvtttlov, 
from Tv\pavg, rv(pd(vg, and rv-nrovg ; and their feminincs, 
from their primitive orthography tv^civtevci, TvtyOtvrLcra, 
&c., passed through, avraa, circra, &c, to their pre- 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 159 

sent forms; hence, the long quantity of the penultima : 
the dat. plur. too, passed through the following modifi- 
cations, TVTTTOVTECri, TOVTGl, TOVGt, TOVGl, &C. ; OCCa- 

sionally the <r was doubled, as on the Heraclean table 
TTpaaaovTCKTai, iroiovTaaGi : this occurred also in final 
syllables, as vooag, (vide supra, note on II. er. 590 :) 
in these instances it is sufficient that the consonant be 
doubled in pronunciation, or we should be consistent 
and write it double at the beginning of words also, as 
Be \\6<j>ov, Be ppeya, &c. From the gen. in avTog and 
ovrog, the r began about Homer's time to disappear, 
as Kpovi'jjvog, aapTrriBovog, waiava, &c. It has been re- 
marked that 7 has disappeared from nouns ending 
in t£, as jurjwyS, juf)w£, GoX-my^,, (toXtti^, ; hence, ara\- 
7ritcTriQ instead of craXiriyKTrig : but the lost letter was 
v, not y, the original shape of the termination being 
tvyg, and ivyr^g. Whenever the final £ is composed 
of kc, not ye, and the penultima of the gen. long, as 
KtjpvKog, <I>6ivikoq, a t seems to have disappeared from 
vktoq, iKTog, &c. : thus, opvig, opvlOog, and the Doric 
6/ovtS, opvi^og, both came from opvixg, (opvt£,) opvt\- 
dog. The same diversity which we observe in nouns, 
appears also in adjectives : we find the masculine de- 
scending from one nom., while the feminine belongs to 
another, &c, as triovog, M., itieipag, F. ; 7rpi(j(5vg, M., 
npeafia, I\ ; iog and iivg, ei) and tju, Gen. efog and 
eoio : TroXvg, noXXbg, M., iroXXi), F., 7roXv and ttoXXov, 
N. ; Xtyvg and puXt^og, Xiyvpbg and peiXix^og ; 7roXu- 
Batcpvg and TroXvdaKpvTog ; tig, of which the feminine 
comes from the obsolete tog, ia, (pia,) i'ov ; with nu- 
merous other varieties arising partly from a difference 
of root, partly from the contractions and elongations 
required by the metre ; derivative and compound ad- 
jectives in og, are inflected in the Epic dialect, as well 
as in the old Attic, with but two terminations. 



160 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 



Pronouns. Of the personal pronouns, the Epic 
forms are : 



Sing. 

N. eyojv eyo) 

G. sfieo, e/xev, ef.iew, fisv 

e/xeOsv 
D. kfxoi, fioi. Old Dor. 

ifisiv 
A. efts, fie 

N. GV, TVViJ 

G. ahv, aev, as, ouo, 
ckQev, cko, rtoio 

D. aoi, rot, ri'iv, and Old 
Dor. rtv 

A. ak, ce 



Dual. 



VOJ, ViOlV, VOJl 

v&'iv 



G. 60, lio, kv, to 
D. sol, 67, 6i, \v. 

Dor, eiv, iv • 
A. £, £, ££, /ttiv 



Old 



GfU), (TCpbJl 

c<pCo'iv, atyioiv 
id. 

CT0W, C0W 



N. A/c0(x5, <70W£ 



Plural, 

d/xfieg, rjfiktg, ruing, 
rjfxkwv, -qjitiiav. 

dfifxiv, d-Hfii, rjfxiv, rjijfiiP, 

(Akffius, aufxeaiv.) 
dufxe, ^fikag, fifiag. 

vfifieg, v/jik&g, vfxtig. 

VflkbJV, VfXSlOjV. 

Vfifiiv, vfifxi, v/juv, and vfifx'. 
vfxfie, vixkag. 

GCpEiOV, CtytoV, (T(j)ti(x)V. 

(T<pi<riv, <7<picri, c<pXv, a<piv, o<pi, 
crQkag, ctyag, <r<pe, (T<p'. 



An emphatic use of pronouns produces a strength- 
ening of the accent, as \W^ °" €U > " tnv widow >" xvpii 
<tzv, "bereaved of thee;" in like manner, aiQtv is 
stronger than aev ; l/uol and £juz, than uoi and jue. On 
this principle eyto and av are never atonic, being al- 
ways used emphatically. When an enclitic follows, 
the natural accentuation remains, as the enclitic of 
itself lends an emphasis ; the enclisis takes place on 
the dative, when used (by Colophonism) for the geni- 
tive. 

Of rig, the Epic declension is : 





Sing. 


Dual. 




Plural, 


N. 


rig, ri, indef. rig, ri 








G. 


Tto,Ttv, indef. tio,tiv 


N. rive 


N. 


rivtg, indef. rivtg. 


D. 


Tt<p, T<}> 




G. 


t'siov, (11. u). 387, alone.) 


A 


riva, ri, indef. tivci, 

Tl 




A. 


rivag, indef. nvag. 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 161 

o, ?j, to, is in Homer either a relative, or demon- 
strative pronoun ; as Side 6sbi, u they the Gods ;" the 
poems contain no article, the datives to1<j$e<ti, Toladseai, 
and ToiadtGcnv) are transpositions of toktl $e; the gen. 
oov has sprung from orov, by the omission of r. On 
this subject, Mr. Knight says : " in the Iliad and Odys- 
sey both, the article is demonstrative and emphatic, 
an usage more cognate to that of the modern Britons, 
than of the later Greeks, (particularly Attics.) Wher- 
ever it is is otherwise used, it is to be erased, as the 
innovation of some injudicious rhapsodist. The an- 
cient poets and rhapsodists being in the habit of re- 
citing their poems with much vehemence of gesticulation, 
and of expressing the emotions of the mind by a 
dramatic play of the voice, hands, eyes, and move- 
ment of the body generally, specifying, as if present, 
the particular objects of their allusions ; the article in 
this w r ay became not unfrequently prefixed to nouns, 
from which it had been originally absent : its use in 
many Homeric passages cannot be otherwise under- 
stood or accounted for. Before adjectives, however, 
used substantively, as ytpwv, yepcuog, Zsivog, &c, it 
supplies the place of a pronoun, though Heyne, with- 
out any adequate reason, would have it removed from 
such situations. A more recent and vulgar use of 
the article, though absent from the language of Homel- 
and Hesio.d, appears to have been very early and gene- 
rally employed ; at the time when the Etrurians and 
Latins were borrowing from the Greeks, not only the 
names of deities, but other words of common and ne- 
cessary use ; terra for instance must have come from Tij 
epqi, as Turmes, the Etrurian name of Mercury, from rug 
'E/o/Lifjc. The Epic poetry in question, must, therefore, 
have preceded in point of time the formation of these lan- 
guages. " to '6c,' civtX tov TrpOTctKTiKov, tov f 6/ ' 0/Jir)pog 

Y 



162 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER, 



ovSzTTOTt riOiiaiv, is the remark of Athenseus ; the con- 
cluding observation is not equally true: " TovfnraXiv 
Se, avTi too e 6c' vttotciktikov, TrapeXa/ufiavev to irpo- 

TCLKTLKOV, O. 

Verbs. — The personal terminations of verbs were 
originally the pronominal affixes jut, gi, ri, [aes, <jeq, teq, 
sometimes elongated into /uai, vat, rai ; the terminations 
' tQa, egOe, e<j6ov, are formed by the addition of the ad- 
verbial particles fW, 6a, Oevj (Oe) : the third plural 
commonly ending in ovat (acccrding to Dawes, ofai,) 
retained in the iEolic and Doric dialects its original 
form ovri, which gradually softened into ovm, wen, overt, 
while others from avn, evti, and ovti, became q<n, ekti, 
and vgi ; the a and v in these being, for this cause, 
always long. Lennep is guilty of an error, when he 
attempts to account for their quantity by bringing them 
from et/ui, aap.i, and oo>. In like manner the futures rv^w, 
j3oa(To> (j>t\ri<TU), &c, are long, coming from tvtttevu), 
fioaeau), <j)i\Ie<t(i), &c. It appears that SiStom, third 
sing, was anciently written SiSon, (8'iSwti,) and that 
those which now end in a, did end in sri ; hence, the 
Latin third sing, in et, and in the subjunctive mood, 
the Ionic form yai is but a slight change from tjti, 
which was still farther modified into r\i and y : this 
change is most natural, for even in our own language, 
ti is commonly pronounced si : r is besides a dental 
consonant, and 2 and are different modifications of 
the dental aspirate. 

In all languages, the more common and early the 
use of any verb is, the more irregularity it presents ; 
hence, that verb which expresses the first idea of 
consciousness, is the least regular in any, particularly 
the modern languages : the verb sum has undergone 
so many changes from eI/m, that their original identity 
is scarcely perceptible : the earliest form of the Greek 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 163 

verb was taw, then tcrw/uLi ; whence the Etrurian esume, 
of which sum is a modification, preserving, however, 
traces of its original formation in esse, essem, (antique 
ese, esem,) and in ero (antique esco,) eram : having, 
according to custom, S changed into R : the perfect 
]ine,fui 9 fueram, &c, comes from the Greek <pvu) : the 
futures taofiai and tomtit, originated in the obsolete e<tw. 
All futures originally ended in taw, as all perfects in 
oca ; but there were two systems of contraction ; by 
omitting a vowel as Af£w, Tv\pw, (compare the old Latin 
fovmfaxo, Ter.) forming what is called the first fu- 
ture ; and by dropping a consonant, as tuttew, tvttCo, 
styled the second future ; in the passive also, from 
zGaioficLi, regularly coming from earcj, was formed by one 
contraction taaojuat, by the other laivnai, ecrov/jiai. 
In Homer's time, j-Vwjui was contracted to i<jjii, and ejujuc , 
(hence zaai, sort, zgjulzv,) and by removing one ^u, and 
still retaining the syllabic quantity 'r?/xt, (hence 7Jrjv, tr}v, 
'f?v, '7)0, &c.) Of '?)a, Heraclides says, that it is the 
first aor. from rjov, (Ionice €ov,) of which the participle 
is twv ; r\a by an Ion. contraction, became tot, whence 
by crasis ri, from which again arose the common r\v. 
In Cilician Greek, the second aor. ended in a, as l'Xaj3a, 
!Vi/7ra, making the third plural in av ; za is most proba- 
bly one of this form. According to Aristarchus, ea was 
a change from tjv, as from rjvrcu, Sio/uleStjv, rjtSrjv, came 
taraif diofirf^a, inSea, &c. ; the contraction of the third 
sing, from ce to ijv, orav, is Doric, and old Attic. Ale- 
man, instead ofrjv in the third sing., writes t)g, and 
in first plur. eg, as \iyofizg for Xiyofiev, (Dorice.) 
Imper. moods in the third sing, should end in odoj, not 
gtw, that is, 9 not r should intervene between a and 
a) ; for £(rro> and iotu), then we should read e gOm and 
taQu>; every tense, of which the participle ends in wv, 
should form its imperfect third sing, in frco ; participles 



164 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

in ug, should in like manner produce ijrw ; however, 
eeTa) passes through drw, into -qrw. Of the optative 
ar/, Heraclides says, that, of participles in wv, the 
optative should be o«* from etdv, then *ot; and that 
optatives ending in ur\v come from participles in eig, 
on which account the iEol. participle should end in eig, 
not u)v ; so from fiXug and dug, arose j3Aao, Quo. Of 
the Sicilian aor. opt. the second plural ends in are, as 
SiaKpivO&iTe. As from one present arise many perfects, 
so to one perfect are attributed several presents, as 
<fnXto, TTE^iXriKa, (Ion. irt^iX^a,) TretyiXa, and TretjuXeta ; 
KaraTtOvEiioTwv, is a participle from a perfect of this 
last form. The Ionic termination becomes indifferently 
ta or aa ; hence IcrTtojg, yEyaug, &c. It may be safely 
affirmed that all past tenses of the active voice termi- 
nated the first sing, in a ; whence, by the addition of 
v, arose av, eav, r\v 9 uv : passive tenses in r\v and 9ev 
were probably formed from a present active in fit, the 
existence of which is, to all appearance, indicated by 
the passive termination /xcu, and though originally be- 
longing to the active form, had a passive signification, 
as their participles in sig or zvg, would tend to prove : 
IrvfyQnv may, without violence, be considered a contrac- 
tion of ETvipafj.qv t (antique ltvirTaanr\v ;) in this tense 
o- intervenes before an aspirate vowel, as TrXrjaOfiv from 
ttXtigQu, which is not very ancient Attic : the Ionians 
who dropped the o-, wrote 7rX09r)v, not TrXfoQ^v, the 
oldest form having been TrXfiOaOriv. The Lacedaemo- 
nians also, in all possible cases, used o- for 9 ; hence 
the perf. p. X£Xa(JiJ.at, triirvafiai, &c, from XaOio, Xi'iOuj, 
&c. ; these in their proper shape are XzXa.9ij.ai, irlTrvO/Liai, 
except when the theme of the verb ends in &<tcu or ocru). 
Whether the forms lyzigw, <j>0eipu> 3 kteivu), Ktivbg, &c,, 
or the .ZEolic Eyeppw, <p9ippu), ktevvu), tczvvbg, j5oXi), &c. ? 
are the more ancient and Homeric, must remain a ques- 



LANGUAGE OF HOftEK. 1 65 

tion. Of the old and new Attic second pers. sing, 
pass, in u and y, the origin was the iEolic e<rai 9 which 
passed into them through the Ionic eat. In the 
first aor. and perf. of verbs, the natural terminations 
aFo-a and oFkci, have been softened into rja and rjfca, as 
StSaria, and Wr)Ka, from Wekgci, (th. OUu.) Hermann 
is wrong in supposing this, together with §iSu)Ka, &c, 
to be obsolete perf. tenses ; analogous to this, is the 
change from QlXaai, l^tkaaro, to <j>i\ai 9 IcpiXaro, &c, 
and this view of the inflexion removes the necessity of 
Heyne's conjecture of a verb <pi\riiuii : in like manner, 
tj took the place of aF in participles, as ri/xaFev^, Ti/mrizvQ, 
(obsolete in Homer's time,) rifirieig. Those perfect 
forms, consisting of an aor. partic. and i\<i) 9 which they 
frequently employ, such orfjo-ac tx (OV > « r ^ r V«C £X ££ * * s 
unknown to Homer, nor indeed is its absence a philo- 
logical defect in the Homeric text ; yet, in Homer we 
find the third plur. perf. and p. perf. formed by arm 
and aro 9 which in Attic Greek are expressed by fizvoi 
uat and r)<rav. The optative mood, formed by the ad- 
dition of Lr\fxi to the theme of the verb, twitto-i/m, Tvxpa- 
ifxi 9 thus expressing the impetus voluntatis, is used by 
the tragic poets in its proper potential signification, 
when in conjunction with av: it is otherwise employed 
in a literally optative sense, but in Homer no such dis- 
tinction is observed, it being here always optative. In 
Homer it is the subjunctive which signifies a conditional 
action, that is, one depending on another action, and 
therefore, in a manner future ; hence the usage of the 
future indicative, for the subjunctive, and the identity 
of the future form in the indicative and subjunctive 
moods, which gave rise to the belief, that the future 
does not exist in the subjunctive. The (TY/?jU ara ifiviczia, 
spoken oi by grammarians, i. e. the use of the indicative 
for the subjunctive, and said to be a peculiarity of the 



166 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 



Rhegian dialect, have no place in Homer. In the 
language of the ancient Dorians, the use of both the 
optative and subjunctive, with ai or «, without ke or av 
was customary ; with this difference, however, that the 
optative had a desiderative signification, and the sub- 
junctive a potential. It appears from the Heraclean 
table, that they joined the indicative also, as it stands 
in Homer, with m Ka, or a ks ; at the same time one 
would imagine it hardly fair to agree with Heyne in 
attributing this use of moods to an unfinished state of 
syntax ; the proper use of the subjunctive being to 
express, not so much an uncertain action, as one de- 
pending on, subjoined to one of previous occurrence, 
so that its use should be determined not so much by 
the accompanying particles, as by the preceding verb, 
which is also the case in Latin. The Homeric Syntax 
recognizes only the future indicative for the subjunc- 
tive : eldo/devi aydpofiev, &c, are Ionic futures, and 
should be written F^o^tsv, ayripojuiev, &c, being origi- 
nally FfSo-Ojucv, ayipcrojiitv, &c, the <r having disap- 
peared, and the preceding vowel consequently produced. 
The Latins inverting the Homeric usage, used the 
present subjunctive for the future indicative of the 
third and fourth conjugations: of the real futures of 
these, we find in Terence sclbo, servibo, &c. In the 
foregoing remarks of the grammarians, though inge- 
nious and most true, respecting the formation of tenses, 
cases, &c, their common and prevailing error is per- 
ceptible of treating archaeisms as provincialisms. Though 
Homer has been accused of a want of accuracy in his 
use of moods, yet, whether his habit, or that of the 
more recent writers be, in this particular, the more 
correct, is to be ascertained only by metaphysical in- 
vestigation. 

The reduplication, which, according to Thiersch* 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 167 

is a repetition of the radical syllable followed by e, 
because this vowel being the most frequent, became 
eventually the universal adjunct, is, in the Epic dialect, 
occasionally prefixed to all tenses except the present, 
and the most recently formed tense the imperfect : 
but most constantly to the perf. and second aor., 
though the former in the Epic dialect frequently ap- 
pears without it, which became a peculiarity of the 
iEolians. The reduplication was used with particular 
frequency in the old Latin, as we find it in Terence 
and his cotemporaries. On reduplicated forms of pre- 
sent tenses, Mr. Knight has the following criticism : 
yiyvwGKU), not yivuxricu), is the correct orthography, 
for two reasons, because the Dorians were in the habit 
of prefixing 7 to many words, as jSqvttoq, yvoQoc, 
(and sometimes $v6(f>og,) yivro, &c. ; thus also, vow, 
yvooj, yv(ot(TK(i), yvwGKUJ, as dopw, OopiGKU), OpWCTKU), 

fioXu), /uoXio-Kw, fiXwGKU), &c, and because, when verbs 
do receive a reduplication, its consonant is a repetition 
of that with which the verb begins ; if, therefore, the 
verb be ^wo-kw, the reduplication should be vlvlo<tk^, 
For the same reason we should write yiyvo/Liai, not 
ytvo/jLai : this comes from yevtt), as fiijuvio from /uivcu ; 
in the same way jnzXio makes fufiXw, and, by inserting /3, 
\ik\i |3Xw. 

The augment, according to Thiersch, is a modifica- 
tion of the reduplication, and owes its omission from 
Homer to the following causes. 1. The exigencies 
of versification ; 2, the division of series (vide infra, 
Versification ,-) and S. a regard to euphony and rythm. 
To place these in a clearer light : 1. All those instances, 
in which the admission or omission could produce no 
alteration of the rhythmical effect, remain unaltered, 
as fitTtaTY), irapivTr}, aviyvu), not /ucraorij, &c. 2. In 
such instances as IfxoyncTa, Soaav, (II. a. 162,) 11>q ^«tq' 



168 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER, 



Xaipz, (Od. /3. 35,) where the admission of the augment 
tfjLoyna, Idocrav, would unite those words which sense 
and rythm require to be separated, it is omitted. 3. 
The augment never intervenes between 7repi, and the 
verb to which it is attached, nor in such as SicKTrnrriv, 
dicKJTKiaav, &c. : the rythm requires its omission also in 
order to produce the third trochaic caesura, as ayoprjv^e 
KoktcFaaTo, II. a. 54-. It is also either omitted, or ad- 
mitted to favour the feminine caesura, in the fourth 
foot, and the trochaic in the fifth. 

Of the temporal augment, originally a syllabic, and 
coalescing eventually with the initial vowel, the usage 
is not so clearly defined ; in verbs beginning with a, 
ai f av, and e, there appears considerable variation ; in 
the forms ivdov* kvpov, tvyjLTO, e-jrev^aro, it does not 
appear ; in verbs begining with i, it is uniformly pre- 
sent, and in o and ot almost always ; before reduplica- 
tion, it frequently appears, as ripape, topope, t^Ajxto, 
rjpripsiGTo, &c. Of this augment, Dr. Buttmann says, 
the temporal augment which supplies the place of the 
reduplication of the perfeet, is never omitted in the 
Epic poets, when the vowel is short, with the single 
exception of avwya, which no longer occurs as a per- 
fect ; but when the vowel is long by nature, the aug- 
ment is unnecessary. And of the other, that " it never 
comes between the preposition and the Homeric verb, 
when the verb uncompounded is in use, nor before a 
preposition ;" but those verbs which would serve as 
instances of the first clause of this latter law, either do 
not occur in Homer, or the presence of the augment 
is obviated by some of the above-mentioned causes : 
the only available instance, the verb avrifioXeu) ap- 
pears augmented, avr£j3oArj<xa, aag, aav, &c. 

Verbs in ctkw appear almost invariably without the 
augment. Of these we find two classes, sc, those 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 1G9 

formed by the combination of the present participle, 
and those from that of the first aorist with £<tkw, the 
ancient and JEolic form of a/xi. Dr. Kennedy says, 
"there certainly appears a considerable difference in 
the meanings expressed by these combinations, which 
may lead us to suppose, that the selection of the parti- 
ciples, was not one without definite principle. Thus, 
if we compare II. j3. 89, 199, with £. 10, in the first of 
which the aorist participle is used, and in the second, 
the present, we shall find, that the former expresses a 
particular act, or series of acts, with distinct reference 
to limitation in point of time, while the latter supposes 
no such limitation, but such a series as constitutes a 
habit, in accordance with this, the expression in ?. 15, 
viz., Trdvrag QiXkpKE, should in strictness be translated, 
it was his wont to be hospitable to all" Verbs of 
this form appear only in the sing, number, and third 
plural of the imperf. and aor. : to this vestige of the 
primitive language, may be also added that presented 
in the formation of tenses, by the combination of 
(juxta-position) of different participles, and eijut, such 
as TtTzXtGfiivov carat, rjev, &c, after the manner of 
modern languages. The ground on which this was re- 
ferred to the iEolic is the inartificial form of the con- 
struction, which accords with the genius of a language 
in its primitive state. This resolution, according to 
Dr. Kennedy, was extended to the Attic dialect also, 
" with this difference, that the latter most usually 
expressed the auxiliary verb, which, in the former, 
it was left to the hearer to supply. Yet, even this 
is not invariably the case, the usage appears in 
certain instances to be reversed, as is plain from e. 
873. Where we meet with rerX^oree 'itfitv, for r£rX?'j- 
ica/iitv ; and in \p. 69, with XsXaffpivoQ e-irXtv. The 
i^Eolic form of the infinitive, in all active tenses, spevai 

z 



no 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER, 



is contracted to e/uiev, eev, eiv, or E/uEvat, eevcli, r\vai ; the 
second fut. act. (so called) has no infinitive. Of con- 
traction generally it may be said, that belonging only 
to the more advanced stages of a language, it should, 
as far as possible, be discouraged in Homer : in any 
case, they are far from being so frequent or uniform 
here, as in the Attic dialect. 

Contracted Verbs. — In verbs in aw, o and a are fre- 
quently inserted for the metre's sake, before the a or w 
formed by contraction, as opaag, bpowv : this is in- 
variably the case, when the word without this insertion 
has a trochaic rhythm, as avriaade ; the a, however, isnot 
inserted, when the latter of the contracted syllables 
was short before contraction, or when r follows ; for 
this reason, avnaacrOE is used in preference to avnaarE : o 
also is rejected from aov, aofiEv, and the inflexion of 
saw ; and e is substituted for it after two consonants, 
for sake of euphony; yEXoiawv comes from ytXoiaio. 
The uncontracted forms of this conjugation are those 
w r ith a, as Sixpawv, tteivclwv : those in aov, when a short 
syllable precedes, as iripaw, all terminations in ao, 
except those in which it is required by the metre : be- 
side these, we find many individual instances which 
variously violate the preceding rules, e. g. the several 
parts of vaiETau), the participle of which, for instance, 
has a), instead of ou, as vaiETawari ; e for 17, in opEat ; t 
for a in julevoiveov, &c. ; but this is resorted to, only to 
create a more harmonious dactyl in the fifth foot, by 
this change, OEaofiai becomes OEio^ai, Oeovfjiat, hence, 
6r)EvvTO, and Br\oio. 

In verbs in em, e before to is contracted by synizesis, 
not crasis, except in the passive aorists, as e(jh\eeOi)v, 
tyiXyOriv : in other tenses the ee would become e1. e 
before ex, ai, crj, Et)i, and Eai, ee, eeq, eev, and eov, are 
contracted, or remain open, as the necessity of the 



LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 1 7 I 

metre requires, the last four particularly in dactylic 
theses of the first, fourth, and fifth feet ; ato suffers 
elision, not contraction. Verbs in ew sometimes elon- 
gate £ into u, as Oe'uo, velkeilo, which was also dictated 
by metrical necessity. 

Verbs in ow are contracted according to the general 
rules, and are elongated by the change of o into to. 

Verbs in £<i> were pronounced by the Dorians <rSw, 
by the Tarentines acrto, by the Boeotians and Lacedae- 
monians ttlo or d$u>. 

Of verbs in jut, those parts which present them- 
selves in Homer come equally from the corresponding 
conjugations in to. Of these the essential difference 
is the absence of the modal vowel : they end in r\fii 
from a root in a, in »jjut from £, in ifii from i, in tofii from 
o, and in vfxi from v. Of 'Urrj/u, an example of the 
first formation, the imperfect and first aor. are transi- 
tive. In II. /3. 525, fi. 56, Earaaav being transitive, is 
an abbreviation of torrjo-av, the first aor., though in the 
latter passage Wolf reads zotckjciv, which would be a 
syncopated form of the pluperfect ; this distinction of 
breathing is laid down by Aristarchus, see Venet. Sch. 
on II. ju. 56. Thiersch considers 'iaraaav a genuine and 
uncontracted pluperfect; he also suspects that Earacrav 
is not an abbreviation Eanqaav, because no instances 
occur wherein or^cra, orfjo-av, orija-e, &<\, are similarly 
abbreviated. Those having the radical e, such as 
TtOijfn, retain many more forms from the cognate con- 
jugation in euj, as et'iQei, irapTiOet, irpoQeovai, eolg, eoi, 
with the second aors. Oio, Qrjg, 6rj, Oelo/ulev, a7roQdofj.cn, 
&c. Of those in ifii, only two vestiges are to be found, 
a7To<pOLfjmv, Od. k. 51 ; ard qOXto, Od. A. 330. Those 
in w[.u, in many cases, resume the modal vowel. From 
infinitives in ojvai, come participles in tog, as Sit^wg, 
ETwrXwg, yvwcj, aXug, &c. Verbs in vf.u do not assume 



172 LANGUAGE OF HOMER. 

i after v in the optat., as Saivvro, &c, in any instance 
where a consonant follows, before which vi cannot 
stand. 

Adverbs ending in i and v, following the general 
analogy by which all adverbs are adjectively formed, 
are neuters sing, of obsolete adjectives in tg and vg, as 
avriKpv, TroWaKi, aa7rov$i, &c. ; those ending in a, in 
like manner, are neuters plur., those in i and u are, 
in many instances, datives sing., and in wg (oig) dative 
plur. ; those ending in Srjv are softened forms of rr\v, 
which, according to Dr. Buttmann, are ace. sing. fern, 
of verbal adjectives in roc, among which he classifies 
airpiarrjv and a/crjv; the assertion that the first of these 
is an adverb, is confirmed by its occurrence in Od. 
where, as an adjective, it cannot be joined in Syntax 
with any substantive : those terminating in da are ob- 
viously the neut. plur. of similar words, as Kpvfida, 
avatyavda, &c. In all Greek dialects, except the Attic, 
k is used for ir in ww, rfri, iron, which gave origin to 
their forms in Latin, quo, qua, quoque. It presents an 
interesting analogy that the Oscan, and old Latin 
dialects use pitpit and poi, for quicquid and qui. The 
Attic usage in this case is (which seldom happens) the 
more ancient, and consequently Homeric. In the 
oldest Venetian copy, wy and aXAp are thus written 
(iota subscr.) according to analogy, being dative cases : 
for, in Doric and iEolic Greek, 7fw and evSw, are woi 
and Ivdoi, &c, being also datives, as were icary, avy, 
napai, viral, &c. ; as irq and 7rr/ are datives, so ttov 
naturally appears to be a gen. Another class exhibi- 
ting an adjective termination from those in Sov, from 
verbal adjectives, &c, sc. napaGTadbv, KaTU)/jia$ov, &c., 
as also those in Srjv, as |3aoV)v, awpiarriv, &c. We 
sometimes find in Homer, the same word used, both 
as an adverb and a preposition, which appears like 



THE DIGAMMA. 



a vestige of their original identity, sc, afityig, (afupi,) 
7rspi, (irzp,) prepositions being, therefore, nothing but 
adverbs governing cases. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DIGAMMA F. 

The traces of the digamma were first discovered by 
Bentley, whose notes on this subject, called the Codex 
Bentleianus, were never printed, and remain in MS. in 
the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was 
followed in this course by Dawes, Knight, Heyne, 
and most zealously by Hermann ; after these by Butt- 
mann and Boeckh ; its principal opponent was Spitzner. 
Of this character, called originally vaw or waw, 
the name given to the sixth letter in the Hebrew, 
Syriac, and Samaritan alphabets, and to the corres- 
ponding letter in the Arabic and ^Ethiopic, the power 
has been variously represented ; sc. according to Dio- 
nysius of Halicarnassus, by ov, oo, or ; according to 
the Latin grammarians by V ; Dawes by W ; and 
Dr. Marsh by the modern sound of the Latin F. It 
would appear that this is not the only character which 
has disappeared from the Greek alphabet. Marius 
Victorinus says, "there did, and still do exist among 
the Greek letters F, G, and Q, but G is employed 
merely as a numeral, and stands for 90,(14) and F, among 
the iEolians only, had the same power as V with us, 
when used as a consonant, and was called vau and 
digamma." 



1T4- THE DIGAMMA. 

Priscian says, (i n aspirated, had nearly the same 
effect, as F now possesses ; as I1H in obsolete Greek 
sounds 0. One of the many instances from which it 
would appear to have sounded V, is the Latin " bos/ 
" bovis," from the iEol. form /3we, j3wFof. Varro at- 
tributes to it the power of /3, and Dionysius sanctions 
this, by writing for Varro, Bappwv. The substance of 
Dawes' Essay "on the Power of the Breathing or Con- 
sonant Vaw," is this. Dionysius represents F by oi), 
which confusion probably arose from this, that in 
Latin, both F and ov were equally convertible into V; 
All these authorities (sc. the Latin grammarians) ex- 
pressing themselves in favour of Vj there appear rib 
grounds for believing in the equivalency of F, and being 
equal to the Latin V, it must, therefore, have been 
equal to our W. Four declensions in which this 
formed an ingredient, sc. eftg or eweg, came by Attic 
crasis rjg. From the terminations of genitives in o, on 
the Sigaaan and Sandwich marbles* it is dediicible, that 
the sound of ov in these cases, was the result of the 
supposed F, which would prove the termination to have 
been exactly equivalent to ow. The Delian inscription 
has oFvro, XiOo : to the objection drawn from the pre- 
sence of F in the first word, and first "syllable, and its 
absence from both terminations ; it is answered, that 
these cases in the iEolic, ended in 6 or o, so that no 
character is suppressed. F was not used by the Ionians> 
but, at whatever time the marks (') and () were brought 
into use, the latter had the power of an aspirate, and 
the former off : if this be not granted, the ' is a power- 
less and superfluous mark. An additional argument 
for this doctrine, is furnished by the use of the charac- 
ters h and h, sc. FHPAKAE1AA, hAIPEGENTES, &c, 
and since this Vaw had two powers, the one that of a 
consonant, and the other that of a sort of aspirate, 



THE DIGAMMA. ItO 

an expedient was resorted to by the Greeks, consistent 
with their usual particularity, of omitting it from the 
number of other consonants, and superscribing it. 
That the powers of the Greek <p, and the Latin F, 
were not identical, appears from the ridicule which his 
ineffectual attempt to pronounce the name " Funda- 
nius," drew from Cicero upon a Greek witness, as well 
as from the testimony of the Iambics of Terentianus 
Maurus. 

"Nos, si quando Grsecum necesse est exprimi, 
P et H. simul solemus, non Latinam hanc (F), ponere, 
Cujus a Graeca recedit, lenis atque hebes sonus." 

With respect to the position of F. The prosodiae 
exigencies of Heroic metre require, that all words be- 
ginning with a vowel, of which the first syllables are 
short, and the second long, be preceded by no other than 
a word ending with a short vowel, from which it is to be 
collected, that all words of such quantity, which at 
present begin with a vowel, and almost every where, fol- 
low either a short vowel, or paragogic v, did originally 
begin with a consonant ; and it may be reasonably pre- 
sumed, that this consonant, {no other than F) is to be pre- 
fixed. To this class belong such words as ava%, 
tKaaTOQ, E/crjAoe, zkojv, l\i(j<T(i), iXup, toiKa, Zopya, &C. 
ava.%, avcKTGU), being selected as the example for the 
illustration of this canon, the passages containing 
either of these words, which would seem to tell against 
its universality of application, are all emendable into an 
accordance with it. From the investigation of II. a. 
44, where otyo tXa<ro-wjU£<T0a avaKTa is decided on, arises 
another observation, sc. In Homer I have observed that 
a dissyllable is never so divided between two feet, that 
the first part ends in a short vowel, followed by a mute 
and liquid. The quantity of the initial i, in other places. 



176 



THE DIGAMMA. 



sc. Od. t. 419, sanctions the position here assigned to 
this verb. 7rpwroc fxlv ava%, i/>. 288, is to be replaced 
by 7rp Cotmjtcl a va.% , or 7rp wrog "pa ava£ : fcporfovrec ava%, 
p. 453, by KpoTeovre av. 'EvovcrOriog avaKrog, o. 363, 
by 'EvpiHjOrjog aiOXcjv, according to Eustathius : ap/mar 
avaKTtJv, ir. 370, by apfxa avaKrojv, which is defended by 
the presence of the dual number, cl^clvte, that is, " having, 
each pair of them, broken a chariot, not chariots," fxol 
ava^, 7r. 523, by jue ava% : both readings are equally unob- 
jectionable, as either is an cnra% lipy]p.ivov : avdaare/uLEv 
? Apy£ioiariv, r. 124, by "'kpyuoiai avaaauv, paralleled 
by Od. t). 62 ; zvavra IIovEiSawvog avaKrog, v. 66, by 
' apa vctKTog, av Uoa : 7rqii)(rav avaKTt, in w. 449, (which 
book presents more difficulties and inconsistencies, than 
any other part of the poem,) by either, irot^aav ayavol 
or woviovTo avaKTt, and 452 of the same book, by orau- 
potcri avaKTa, rqty]<7. ttvkv ; Kvcaive Se Ovjuov avaKrog, 
Od. £• 438, by Ovpov 8' laive avaKrog, or, rather Irjve, 
paralleled by II. r. 174, $. 597, and Od. o\ 548; ^Au0' 
Pvclktoq, Od. 7T- 14, by ?j\0£ civa/croc, t6%ov, Od. 0. 56, 
)by ro£a aya/cro?, sanctioned by the frequent use of this 
word in the plural number. riawEp avdaaug, Od. o>. 
30, (which, as well as the same book of the Iliad, pre- 
sents unusual anomalies, and is considered spurious by 
Aristarchus and Aristophanes,) by fig lavaaatg. On 
the usage of this imperfect, it is remarked that it never 
begins a verse in Homer, nor does it occur where it may 
not be replaced by eFavacro-ov. 

In the second case, the laws of Heroic measure re- 
quire, that every word beginning with a vowel, of which 
the first syllable is long, any short syllable should end 
in a vowel, and that before the same, every syllable ending 
in a consonant, which, if followed by a vowel, would be 
necessarily short, should be produced, and therefore, to 
all such, F is prefixed. In like manner, any word, whose 



THE DIGAMMA* 17? 

first and second syllables are short i requires the produc- 
tion of any such preceding syllable, as, followed by a 
vowel, would be short, and, therefore, here also, the inser- 
tion off is necessary. Under the former of these two 
canons, are comprised such words as acrrv, diruv, ioyov, 
iXtog, ipig, icrog, oiSa, olkoq, olvoq, &c. ; the latter ex- 
tends to all such as zirog, tireog, eovu), la\rj, 'ikeXoq, &c. 
F appears to have been inserted, not merely before 
vowels, but also before the semivowels X, p., v, p, as 
in II. e. 358, noWa FXto-o-Ojucva ; and hence the pheno- 
mena of duplicated consonants, as eWafie, zpp&v. Many 
words beginning now with p, as priyvvfii, p'nrrti), did 
originally open with F, which is perpetuated in the 
Attic practice of ascribing to the initial p the power 
of a duplicated consonant, and still more evidently, in 
that of doubling the initial p, after an augment. This 
system of orthography, dictated to subscribers, by what 
they conceived to be the necessity of metre, was subse- 
quently adopted in prose ; and superfluously, as the 
initial p of an uncompounded word, retained singly its 
producing power ; this use of F before p does not, 
however, imply its presence before an initial vowel in 
composition, which occurs but in two instances, ap-tyi- 
Fevvvfit, and TrpoaFeXetv. Tt is probable that it was 
also very frequently employed to prevent an ungraceful 
concourse of vowels in the middle of words; its most 
unusual position, however, was after S and a, as in 
iFuvoQ, and o-Fou, pronounced as the English words, 
" dwell,'" and " swain" F exercises another influence 
too, beside that which it possesses in common with 
other consonants: it has been remarked, that the 
first syllables of such words as \vw, tloj, &c, vary in 
quantity, in the future tenses of which, \iktw, tIgm, 
there is, however, no variation, which is satisfactorily 
to be accounted for, only by the effect of F. Sup- 

2 k 



178 



THE DIGAMMA. 



posing this to have intervened, the quantity of that 
syllable will depend on its position, sc. if the division of 
the syllables be Xu-Fw, it will naturally remain short, 
as in the other case, XvF-w, the intervening consonant 
of course acquires a double sound, and consequently 
produces the preceding vowel; but, in the case of the 
future, this alternative does not exist, and this power 
it exercises on the initial, as well as on the medial vowels 
of words, as fi& avSpi Ff/ctAr?, 11. 8. 86 , et passim. Its 
analogy to this part of the subject, suggests some re- 
marks on the digammated word " Siliise," (Horace, 
Carm. 1, 23-4;) the production of its first syllable 
being ascribable solely to the influence of this, espe- 
cially as it is not a parallel to such diaereses as " solti- 
ende," &c. in Tibullus, where the preceding syllable 
does not retain its long quantity. (15) 

The vowel Y frequently arrogates the place and 
power of F : the termination known to us as evg was in 
the primitive dialect, zFg, as Arpevg, ArptFc, from the 
genitive of which comes the patronymic ArptFtSrig, as 
from "E/crwp, 'EKTopiSrig, &c., which appears more pro- 
bable from the partiality of the formation of the heroic 
■ line, to the quadrisyllabic form ; and this destroys the 
imaginary climax of Eustathius, II. 7. 182, erected on 
the supposition of the words of the verse, consisting 
successively of one, two, three, four, and five syllables. 
Among the Ionians, the terminations r}Fg } and sFg, were 
in indiscriminate use ; as vr\Fg, commonly vr)vg, and v*Fg } 
commonly vevg : from the long form of proper names, as 
IlrjXrjFc, came such patronymics as UrjXriFiadrtg : that 
which was idrig, after the short syllable, became uiSrig 
after the long. 

In accordance with the rules foregoing, the follow- 
ing emendations are proposed : II. a. 409, for a/Lift a\a 
c'Xo-cu Axacouc? is substituted FuXai Axa^ovg, supported 



THE DIGAMMA. 179 

by the analogy of the words FaXftc, FaAr} ( im;cu, &c, 
and FtFeXfnvoi evSoQi TrvpyCov, before which it is pro- 
posed to read kekopegOe, for rjaOe. On the analogy of 
KOpzcrat, &C, a. 529, for ETTEppuxjavTo. EFEppuaavro, 
dictated by the incongruity of the prepositions liri and 
airo. For (jTrjr e\e\lxOevteq, k. 587, orf/re FeXixOevteq, 
as in Jul. 74. For hitraftivrit y. 389, Facra^vrj, in order 
to remove the augment from the participle. For 
£wvoxo£tj & 3, sFotvoxoFa, to avoid the double aug- 
ment, as £wk£(j eiLXttei, rilidei, &c, should be replaced 
by FeFoltei, FeFoXttei, FolSei, &c. For aacrafjLriv, i. 116, 
aFacrafj.r)v f the (commonly styled) doubtful quantity of 
the a, in the two first syllables of this word, is to be 
explained on the same principle as that of Auw, rtw, 
(supra.) As to the varying quantity in aarog, exhibited 
in II. £. 271, aaciTov, Od. 0. 91, adarov, Od. x- id. ; for 
the first example is suggested the reading avaaaTOv, or 
avaFacTTOv, from a steretic, and afaZa), Icedo : the se- 
cond is properly avaFaroc, " innocaus" fr. aFarr7, noxa. 
For EaSora, l. 173, FeFclvSotci, as from )£av5avw, comes 
KExavdora. It is also proposed to produce the ttcktl in 
this line, by understanding not iravm, but 7raFa:d, as tetv- 
(jjudi from TETvcpaFm ; rimTOvai from 7i>7rroFo7, &c. For 
av'iaxoi,v. 41, aiaxoc 9 L e. aFiFaxpi, or rather aFFtFaxof. 
For EEpro, Od. o. 459, FfFfp/cro, as inV. 295, FEFEpyfiEvov. 
To this character, called by grammarians, from its 
shape, digamma, Thiersch attributes a sound, origi- 
nally that of F, subsequently softened into V, (W,) in 
Latin before E and I ; and in Greek into $ and /3, as 
Fipig became fiipig among the Lacedaemonians ; the 
substitution of y for F, he refers to the ignorance of 
transcribers, misled by the similarity of form. It was 
commonly changed in the middle of words into Y, 
which vowel, as well as o or t, frequently replaced it at 
the beginning also. The original form of the letter 



180 



THE DIGAMMA. 



was retained in the Latin and Etrurian alphabets : on 
the coins of Capua, and the Heraclean tables, it assumes 
the shape C, and is used as <?, a numeral signifying six, 
thus retaining its ancient position in the alphabet. It 
has obtained the name iEolic, from having been re- 
tained by the iEolians, after its disuse by the other 
Greeks, though originally present in the languages of 
Ionians, Cretans, and Dorians. 

Its absence from the poems of Homer, is to be ac- 
counted for by the fact, that in Athens, where copies 
of them were multiplied and perpetuated, it had ceased 
to exist as an alphabetic character : and this omission, 
as well as the idea, that F was an iEolic peculiarity, 
and, therefore, foreign to the Ionic Homer, accounts 
for the silence of the ancient grammarians, respecting 
it. Of the Homeric use of F, Thiersch adduces three 
principal cases, in which it is invariably present. 1st. 
When short vowels suffer no elision before them, as 
avrbvg Se sXwpLa, &c. 2. When in composition, neither 
elision nor eras is takes place, as Siaenre/uev, Iwiavda- 
veiv, &c. 3rd. When verbs which should have the tem- 
poral, take the syllabic augment, as ha%£, hitrre, or con- 
vert F in this position, into v, as tvadev : and here it is 
observed, that, though the syllabic augment did not 
originally differ from the reduplication, yet, the initial 
consonant of the latter began to be disused in Homer's 
time ; as we find the second aorist sometimes with, and 
sometimes without it. 

Of the digammated words in Homer, there are two 
classes, sc. those in which the digamma is always pre- 
sent, and those in which it alternately appears and 
disappears. 

To the former of these classes belong, Hap, "ISov, 
otSa, and the other parts of the same verb, sidog, 
hSioXov, tiKOvi, £Ktx)v, fK»;rt, tiXiuj, with its derivatives 



THE DIGAMMA. 181 

and modifications ; eXiao-u), eXtZ;, eXirig, eXirio, eXcjp, 
evvvjui, &c. ; zttoq, uttov, &C. ; eog, bg, epyov, eopya, epecv, 
eppw, eairepog, errjg, erog, r}Cog, ricojuai, rjuog, iov, tovuag, 
*lg, torog, 'icrrj/un, 'irvg, otKog, olvog, and their derivatives. 
Of the other class, some are digammated in Homer, 
which elsewhere are not so : such are, aXtg, aXrivai, 
aXCovai,a7rr(D, apalog,apBw,apveg,a(7Tv,iiK:(jj,edvov,e0eipai, 
Wvog, ticauTog, eicvpog, eiaqXog, rjvoi//, "Hprj, 1?X* W > la X^> 
iK/Liag, dvXa.fj.6g, ovXog, etcricu), eaceXog, epyuj, tepyw, ep- 
yaO(o, spew, epvu), trwGiog, fjica, rjXog, hp.ai, "iXiog, l-ireg, 
v lpig, loj-n, b^6vr\, u)X%, ojg. Of others, nothing can be 
decided from their unfrequency in Homer, as evrepa, 
y'lXiKtg, fiXiKir) : others have lost it in Homeric Greek, 
as eXog, 'EXivrf, clkti], avfip, and vBwp. Those which 
without any exception retain F, are aXwvat, apa'iog, 
eBvov, Weipai, Wvog, ecnrepog, errjg, eppa), r)voip/iov,loSv£- 
(pig, lovOag, ovXa/xog. The inconsistencies in the use 
of F are, in many cases, such as neither the ignorance 
of transcribers, nor the consequent alterations to which 
the poems were subjected, can account for. Priscian, 
"de ArteGrammatica," says, that the iEolians conceded 
no prosodiac power to the digamma, and that after Be, 
and its compounds, ode, wBe, ovde, and p.r}Be, it was sup- 
pressed, as afi/meg B\ (F)eipavav, which effect is attributed 
also to ye and bye, hence a general rule is deducible, 
that F disappears after an apostrophe . 

Several anomalies may be accounted for, by ob- 
serving that many words, though retaining it in their 
simpler form, lost it in their derivatives; and, that the 
same words, at the same epoch, appeared either with 
or without it, whether initial or medial, as required by 
the metre ; and herein it is analogous to other conso- 
nants, which were frequently removed for metre's sake, 
as kiljv, livv ; Xel^u), cVj3w ; irepi, Ipi, &c. In debateable 
cases, such readings as are favourable to F should be 



182 THE DIGAMMA. 

used, as its subsequent omission is more likely, than 
its having been dispensed with by the poet. For its 
restoration in some cases, the paragogic v, and par- 
ticles of similar prosodiac power, may be removed. 

Instances of hiatus (the principal argument of Spitz- 
ner, against the existence of F) may be removed by the 
insertion of particles, consistently with idiom, and not un- 
frequently by an alteration in the arrangement of words, 
(vid. infra.) One ofthe most remarkable cases occurs after 
the second plural of tenses in re, which originally ended 
in rsg, as did the nom. dual of oblique declensions. The 
medial F appeared in connexion with consonants, into 
a variety of which it was convertible both in Greek and 
Latin, as sylva, com&uro, cumis, ju^-jS-Xw, ya/uL-fi-poQ : 
&c, and between open vowels, in such cases as cuw, aCcr- 
(TU), big, icXrjic'j &c, which is confirmed by the fact, that 
such are never contracted into aiw s clcrcru), 6lg, &c. ; its 
most usual conversion is into v, as in future tenses, 
Xiw, x^Fo-w, \tv(T<x), and suppressing the <j, x £ ^ w j X £ ™"> 
&c. We sometimes find a final F in vocatives, as j3ao-i- 
XfF, fdacriXlv. 

The Bishop of St. David's, in a letter to the Bishop 
of Durham, in refutation of part of Dr. Marsh's Horas 
Pelasgicse, controverts the following assertions of the 
Doctor, " that the Greek F, and the Latin F, must 
have been the same in sound, because they were the 
same in form, and alphabetic arrangement ;" and, 
" that the ancient pronunciation of the Latin F was 
identical with the modern;" the first, by the fact of 
the same analogy not holding good between the Greek 
and Hebrew alphabets, as he assumes between the 
Latin and Greek ; and the second, by a satisfactory 
analogical proof of the difference between the ancient 
and modern pronunciation of the Latin F ; thus, Te- 
rentianus Maurus says, as above quoted, " F. littera a 



THE D1GAMMA. 183 

Graeca # recedit, lenis et hebes sonus," whence, it would 
appear, that, unaccompanied by the aspiration which the 
modern pronunciation lends to it, it coincided in sound 
with the modern V, and resembled our F, in its smooth 
consonantsound, but differed from it in having no vowel 
expression. The F, was, like our V, both vowel and 
consonant, and this will probably account for the 
ancient Latin grammarians representing the digamma 
by V, rather than F, though in figure, the latter re- 
sembled the ./Eolic letter. Though Dionysius gene- 
rally expresses it by ou, yet, in some proper names, 
such as Fidense, he represents it by <£, which, in an- 
swer to Dr. M., the bishop asserts not to be opposite 
or inconsistent, being both labials. B and W also are 
letters belonging to the same organ, and no physical 
impossibility prevents their interchange. The conjec- 
ture that F is double Y, is based on a peculiarity in 
the name of the latter character : the addition of the 
epithet \pi\ov, implying the existence of some corres- 
ponding Saav, as the £ has its correlative rj, and the o 
its u), and as this relation exists in the Latin alphabet 
between F and V. And if this hypothesis be correct, 
its inference coincides with Dawes' opinion ; for as Y 
is Latinized by V, of course, double Y is equivalent to 
double V, i. e. W. The same doctrine is supported 
by a sorites also, (the first premiss of which is denied 
by Dr. M., and reasserted by the bishop, on principles 
already alluded to,) which runs thus : the Greek F was 
pronounced like the Greek ov ; the Greek ou, like the 
French ou ; and the French ou, like the English W ; 
ergo, the Greek F was equivalent in sound to the English 
W. That the Greeks were in the habit of lending to 
a particular set of words beginning with vowels, an 
initial sound which sometimes too intervened in the 
middle parts of words, cannot be doubted: that this 



184 



THE DIGAMMA, 



was a species of breathing, but not the aspirate, and 
that it had the use and place of a consonant, are pro- 
positions equally undeniable : it is commonly attributed 
to the iEolians. Thus, does Heyne open his excursus 
on the digamma, and proceeds to this effect. With what 
sound the Greeks expressed this breathing, no investi- 
gation can now ascertain; it is, however, generally 
believed to have an affinity to the labial sounds, be^ 
cause it has been replaced in Latin by V ; among the 
Dorians, particularly the Lacedaemonians, by B and Y ; 
it also passed, in what way does not appear, into y, 
and occasionally into S; that it corresponded with the 
Latin vaw, we learn from Quinctilian. That it be- 
longed particularly to the Cohans was a prevalent 
belief among the ancients, transmitted by the gram- 
marians to the present time : thus, Apollonius Dyscol, 
asserts in fragm. App. Maitt. p. 427, 432, (where rov 
ebv iraXda, should be written rov Fov ircuda, ra ka icaSea, 
altered to tcl Fa, and arap yzQzv, to arep FeOev.) In the 
fragment of Sappho quoted by Longinus, we have aXXa 
Kajiifxlv yXwcraa Fzaye or FeFaye ; but the words wg yap 
zi$u) ere, immediately before, are opposed to this, for 
FeiBu) would not suit the metre. This belief was en- 
couraged by another which drew the Latin language 
from an iEolic source. For this later tradition, after 
the most careful investigation, I find no adequate basis. 
What intercourse could the Latins, or their descendants 
the Romans, possibly have had with the ./Eolians, 
sufficient to account for their being indebted to them, 
even for their language ? — all ancient history contradicts 
the assertion. On the contrary, they who did emigrate 
into Italy and incorporate with the Aborigines, a tribe 
of Ausones, from whom the Latins were descended, 
were the Pelasgi : its proper name would therefore be 
the Pelasgic digamma. It is, however, the safest theory 



THE DIGAMMA. 185 

to regard it, as belonging to the common dialect 
of the ancient Greeks. That the Hellenes, having 
been either descended from, or blended with the Pe- 
lasgi, used a language common to both, may be easily 
inferred from what is related concerning them. The 
iEoiians who felt a partiality for old customs, natu- 
rally retained the digamma longer than any others ; 
accordingly, when the derivation from a Greek source 
of any part of the Latin language was intended to 
be expressed, it was called /Eolic ; and this occurred 
particularly in the case of this letter. The know- 
ledge of these particulars would be more certainly 
established, if the treatise of Tvpavvlujv, " irepX rfje'Pw^at- 
k?iq SiaXeKrov, on ear\v ItcTrig 'EWtivikijq" was extant — he 
did not say Ik rrig 'AioXikyiq. Others have spoken with 
less caution. Quinctilian says, " iEolica ratione, cui 
sermo noster simillimus est." 

Since the digamma was common to all the ancient 
Greeks, and its use varied with time and other changing 
influences, it cannot be a matter of wonder, if all the 
instances which occur in the old i^Eolic do not also 
appear in Homer. The poets, in general, adopted or 
dispensed with archaeisms, according to metrical neces- 
tity. Many iEolisms, therefore, are to be found, which 
do not appear in Homer, and v. v. ; to this subject be- 
longs what Dionysius Hal. relates of Velia, sc. that it 
is derived from RAoe, 'i\og ; and in Homer no use of the 
digamma in this word appears. 

The conjectures and imaginings of the later gram- 
marians respecting the ^Eolic dialect have been many. 
How could Gregorius Corinthius, Johannes Philoponus, 
and men of the same class, in whose time not even 
a vestige of anything /Eolic remained, or even the 
Alexandrines and their successors, have attained any 

2 b 



186 THE DIGAMMA. 

knowledge of the primitive y£olic dialect ? Whatever 
knowledge they possessed, was derived from the co- 
temporary lyric poets. The more momentous ques- 
tions appear to me to be those respecting the use of 
the digamma among the ancients ; its extent; the uni- 
formity of its use in particular words; the number and 
exact limits of that set of words to which it is believed 
to have belonged ; its metrical use ; and the particular 
time at which the use of it was neglected. These in- 
quiries, however, are to be pursued only as they refer to 
Homer. That the use of the digamma was lost at an 
early period, appears from the fact, that its absence is 
an almost invariable criterion of those lines which the 
rhapsodists have intruded into the text of Homer; 
this neglect of it soon degenerated into a total igno- 
rance. Its total disappearance may be dated at the 
period of the transcription of these poems at Athens, 
sc. the age of Solon; this disappearance created many 
hiatus, the occurrence of which before a particular set 
of words first awakened a suspicion, which ended in a 
search after the lost letter. 

These two observations present themselves upon in- 
vestigation. 1 . That all the more recent poets who used 
the digamma, receded from the Homeric usage, in 
their inconstant employment of it. 2. That hiatus 
was in some words retained, m others avoided, and, 
that hence arose many prosodiac laws, inapplicable to 
the genuine parts of Homer. The poets to whom these 
observations particularly apply, are Hesiod, and Apol- 
lonius Rhodius. Pindar is inconsistent, apparently, 
in his use of the digamma ; but from Theocritus, it is 
altogether absent. 

The aspirates, both vowel and consonant, were 
frequently elided ; hence crvc, vg, 0rj, »j, &c. ; and fu- 
ture tenses sometimes appear without the characteris- 



THE D1GAMMA. I 8 i 

tic <r ; whence, through ignorance of this omission, the 
authors of ancient scholia have taken them for present 
tenses. F was cutaway in the same manner, but, whether 
avrap, 7rov\vQ, Sovpv, fiov\of.iai, &c, were ever written 
withthedigamma,as Dawes and Burgess have said, is un- 
certain : for, though v was inserted for F in some cases, 
yet ov is frequently nothing but the elongation of o, 
and this is particularly certain in the case of f3ov\oiiat. 
Among the Lacedaemonians too, the negative 6v was 
expressed by 6. All the diphthongs in fact, were used 
much more generally in the ancient, than the more re- 
cent Greek, thus, we find eifii in the first Sigasan inscrip- 
tion, while the second has t/Lii. Though these letters may 
have disappeared from words, to which they belonged, 
no possible license can exist for introducing them into 
words of which they did not originally form a part. 
The ancient grammarians have laid down laws determi- 
ning the proper position of the aspirate ; but it does 
not appear regulated by any. The F, on the contrary, 
appears to be so far a component part of the language, 
that in the ancient form of declension it was the cha- 
racteristic letter of the oblique cases of masculine and 
neuter nouns in oq, and vg, and of feminines in w, we, 
vg, a and r/, though in the gen. plur. of the latter it is 
required by the metre only. 

With respect to the digamma in the middle of 
words, the great inconsistencies and variations observa- 
ble in this particular, not being sufficiently taken into 
account, presented many difficulties to Bentley. On 
this question of etymology, it may be laid down, first, 
that in compounds of prepositions and verbs, beginning 
with F, it is retained in its former position, subject, 
however, to occasional removal, when the metre re- 
quires ; vide infra. Secondly, that, in compounds of 
which the first pars are substantives and adjecti 



188 GLOSSARY. 

the presence of the F at the beginning of the second 
word, is much less liable to variation ; vide infra. 

From this use of F arose the practice of inserting 
it between two vowels in the same word, for the pur- 
pose of avoiding hiatus, vid. Priscian, lib. i. p. 547. 
"Ubique iEoles loco adspirationis Vau interponere," 
and " hiatus quoque causa, F interponere solebant, 
quod ostendunt etiam poetse iEolidae, uti Alcman kcu 

XzifJLCL, 7TVpTE SaFfOV." 

For the prosodiac power of the digamma, see 
chapter 15. 

In the following Glossary are enumerated words 
digammated, of remarkable forms, peculiar to Homer, 

&c. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GLOSSARY. 

'''A, exclamation of admiration or pity (d SstX.) F«; 
hence Latin vah ! 

W A, Fa, £a, sua. 

"Aaroe, aFaroc, (hence Latin avidus,) cont. droe, which, 
according to Dr. Buttmann, is the form which always 
occurs in Homer, and is derived from aw, dcrat, anzvai, 
hence "a^v : in the Attic dialect avaroc, .^Esch. Supp. 
345 ; the Attics inserted v between the negative a, 
and the succeeding vowel, as avaivo/uai, &c. On this 
principle Dawes would write the following word ava- 
Faorov. 

'Aaarocj aaJrarog, " innoxius ;" adarog, aaFavTog, "in- 
violabilis ;" these two Dr. B. considers to be the same 



GLOSSARY. 189 

word, the latter occurring in the Iliad, the former 
in the Odyssey, and incapable of contraction to aarog, 
which would create confusion, and derives it from 
aaofiai, making it to signify literally " not contemp- 
tible," II. ?. 271; Od. <j>. 91, x- 51- The Doric 
form used by Hesychius, as a gloss, is acifiaKTog ; he 
writes also aacrrog, and aarog, omitting the first a, 
and aarrog : formerly, <j and r were interchangeable. 
Pindar has Oavjuarra, and the more Homeric form 
of this word would be cmFarrov. Akin to this is, 

"Arrj, aFarrj, " avaritia, noxa, mala cupido; 5 ' in 
Homer this word was used as a trisyllable, and all those 
passages which refuse to admit it as such, sc. II. r. 
85, 139; w. 22, 30, &c, must be considered inter- 
polated. 

Aayrjg, aFayng, Od. A. 574. 

"Ayw, Fajio, Fayvvjuii, (/caraFa^ajuev, v. 257 ; ^uvtFa^s, 
A. 114, &c,) also Favyw, and antiquius Fpavyw, hence 
the Ldit.frango. From this comes, 

""Ayij, Fayrj, " fractura." Heyne distinguishes be- 
tween this and ayrj, " admiratio," which he brings from 
ay apai, but they are the same word ; it signifies, in a 
secondary sense, " a refraction of rays of light," hence, 
" a dazzling glare," and hence, "astonishment." 

'AavKppiov, "mente laevafatuus ;" originally, according 
to Dr. B., for azai<{>pwv } the sounds ae being the more 
customary and agreeable ; fr. ado/iaL. Of this verb, the 
aor. pass. aaaOriv, he considers to be occasionally used 
in a middle sense, (according to the Attic usage,) and 
the middle aarai, II. r. (pt. 95, and 129, in an active 
signification. 

"Ayavog, ayaFog, " praeclarus, superbus ;" fr. ayaFio, 
whence, ayr\}.u, and aya/uai. 

^AyytXtag, and ayytkiri. A question has been raised 
respecting the existence of the first of these forms in 



190 GLOSSARY. 

Homer. Dr. B., in order to prevent the confusion 
of the double syntax, IXQtiv (evena) ayyeXirfg, and eXOeiv 
Citg, or rather tVi) ayye\ir)v, believes in the existence 
of both: in Od. k. 245, n . 263, o. 41, re. 334, and m 
353, the feminine is decidedly the construction : the 
debateable passages are II. 7. 206, 8. 384, X. 140, v. 
252, and o. 640. We see that the passages where a 
masculine substantive is used, or a different syntax re- 
quired, occur all in the Iliad ; this perhaps may render 
the inconsistency of construction or orthography more 
defensible. Though Eustathius mentions only the 
feminine form, the Alexandrine grammarians admitted 
both. The debateable passages above specified, I 
would translate thus, II. y. 206, " when he came hither 
an ambassador, concerning you," &c, 8. 384 ; " the 
Greeks sent forward Tydeus as an ambassador," X. 
150; "when he came as an ambassador," v. 252; lit. 
"have you come, an ambassador of, (i. e. to communi- 
cate) anything ?" o. 640 ; " who used to go as an am- 
bassador, of (to announce) the tasks imposed by, &c. ;" 
establishing, in this way, the use of the masculine in 
the Iliad, and the feminine in the Odyssey. 

"Ayyoej eog, " a vessel surrounded with hoops ;" fr. 
ay^w, ayyb), Lat. ango. 

'Ayepwxog, " ferox, superbus;" fr. «. int. •y£pae-£X w J 
u one invested with too many honors ;" rather fr. ysyz- 
P u) X a } P* °f ytp&vota, fr. yep(o, (gero,) i. e. citram gero, 
hence, with a neg. " one who does not care." Dr. B. 
says, this was used by the rhetoricians, who borrowed 
it from the Asiatics, (as it does not occur in pure Attic,) 
in the sense of" wild," "unmanageable." In Homer and 
Pindar it is used in a favourable sense only, applied 
principally to Asiatics : " the only Eastern nation whom 
Homer compliments with it, are the Mysians," vid. II. k. 
430. Pindar writes 7rXoi'rou arefyavfOfi ayipw\ov : put- 



GLOSSARY. 191 

ting all these together, the epithet probably refers to 
external display, dignity of appearance, (rejuivoTrjg. 

Alcaeus and Archilochus use it as a reproach. 

'Ajkcu, " the arms," literally " a curve ;" the parent 
of ayicv\oQ, angulus, ayictov. 

'Ayicoivri, uncus, ancus, &c : ajKaXig, " an arm-full." 

"Ayx^ <( near >" P r °p. dative singular of ay%, " the 
elbow." 

'Ayiveio, elong. of ayu). 

"A&w, a&w, FaSw, aSlw, placeo, hence rj£o/xcu, Fr)$ojucu, 
'aSojuat/saSa ; but laSa, from f aStw, undigammated, vid.y. 
173, |u. 80 ; different from this, Heyne says, is 'acta, aaw, 
satio, undigam. : And again, another variety "aSo>, 'a&w, 
undigam. ; whence cJSrj, aSBri, vid. v. 315. Surely, satio 
and placeo are but different modifications of the same 
idea. Bentley and Knight have FaBco, Fadr^v, FaSoe, 
FadriKOTeg. Hesychius has FavSavw, yavdavu), yaSsiv, 
yaStaQcu, whence, yriOiu), yavofim, and the Latin gaudeo. 
Ionice fidoj, whence tcvov, l&vov, and avaedvog, i. e. 
aasSvbg, by a duplication of the negative. With respect 
to adriKOTEQ, (for the syllable being long, the second § 
is unnecessary,) Dr. Buttmann, admitting its forma- 
tion from aSis), the source of a^rjaai, aaai, &c, with 
a<$oc, and aSriv, ace. to him an adverb, remarks that it 
does not express the idea of satiety, but of disgust, 
dislike, or pain, as adrjcFetev, Od. a. 134; besides, he asks 
rather triumphantly, whether " wearied with sleep' 
can signify "with the want of it." To answer both 
together; the ideas of " disgust" and "satiety" are 
certainly as much modifications of the same idea, as 
" satio" and " placeo." Dr. B. says, full of sleep, and 
satiated with sleep are not synonymous ! this requires 
no comment. What difference would he suggest be- 
tween full of wine, and satiated with wine f the ideas of 
pleasure and satisfaction in one set of instances, (II. 1. 



192 GLOSSARY. 

489, &c.) and of dislike arising from satiety, in another, 
do not of course imply a difference in the primary sense ; 
but even without this, virvog can, very idiomatically, 
signify the want of sleep. Horace has " ludo fatigatum- 
que somno," which can possibly bear no other meaning. 
Euripides, Hec. writes yiyvwvicE rriv ar)v aXicrjv, " re- 
member your weakness." Virg. also writes, "vis-alto 
vulnere," "the sense of faintness, {want of strength) 
from the deep wound." There is, in fact, no more 
common idiom. 

"Ay pew, an ancient form of tupsw, of which only the 
imperative aypei, (as an interjection,) age, tenez, occurs 
in Homer. — B. Hence, avrdypsTog, Od. tt. 148, and 
avOdiperog, are synonyms. 

'AeacrjQ, afaiKriQ, indignus, iniquus, unseemly, impro- 
per, hence aFuKtXiog. 

'Aff'joo), aFeipu) ; fr. zipw, Fupio, necto : rjFapev, k. 499 ; 
its derivatives are not digammated ; avvyjopog, irap^o- 
pog, hence rjopfiev, yopfxat, whence aopro, y. 272, aop- 
rrip, aop. Bentley writes Faoptg, midieres, i. 327, and 
JrwpecjcTi, £. 486. 

' AScvk^Cj " insuavis ;" fr. a-yXevKrig . 

"Aekwv, aFsKCJv, quia Fskwv, hence aFejcrjrf, aFf/ca^o- 
fxai. 

"AeXXa, from tXXw, aXsw, '/XXw, aXfw, &C, forms of 
eXdvvw, hence Lat. pro-cella. 

'AeXttw, to despair, aFeXirto, hence aFsXTrrig, Od. c. 
408. 

'Aepyog, dFepyog, quia Fepyov. 

^AiiOegctu), aFridecrGii), k. 493, quia FtiQog. 

"AZw ; fr. aw spiro, to dry by blowing upon ; keItcii 
$' aZopivo, aZofiat to revere, from x«£°A ta< > " to retire, 
give way to." 

y Ai)(Tv\og, v. ai(Tv\og, violent us, fr. a-i]Sio. 



GLOSSARY. 193 

'A/&/C, " Hades, Orcus," aFiSr^g, quia FaBio : also 
aF^Cj aFidog, aFidrjXog. 

"AiSp£c,aRSptc;fr.iff»j/*t, Ra-rjjut; hence aFidpdr},7). 198. 
'A/'w, aFnx), exhalo and audio, which is derived from 
it. The quantity of a is doubtful in Homer, comp. K . 
160, 532, A. 463, o. 252, <r. 222, tf>. 388, &c. 

'Aiwv, 6, " a number of years, a length of time " 
i7 attov, life, lit. the spinal marrow. 

'Ak?)v, accus. of clkt], punctura, (sub. /car,) " i/s so;- 
rowful silence " Dr. B. says, aicsojv, and tWjv are both 
adverbs ; fr. a-xcuvio, by an Ionic change of ^ to k ; 
the former being the neuter singular of a/caoc, aor. Att. 
twv ; the latter the feminine accusative singular atcaav, 
atcariv, clkyiv, like airpiaTrjv, &c. * The accents differ, 
but in Homer the blending of traditional forms with 
the conjectures of grammarians, has produced the ir- 
regularity. 

'Adrnj.ovuv, el to be at a loss, in perplexity " fr. 
a-Srifiog, lit. " not at home." — B. 

'Adivbg, from its primary sense of " greatness," "in- 
tensity," " density," bears in the following passages, 
the annexed meanings, II. /3. 87, with iizXiaaawv, " nu- 
merous," II. 7T. 451; Kiip, "compact," <r. 124; arova- 
Xnaai, "loudly, deeply," r. 314, id.; also in II. o\ 316, 
x . 430, $. 17, bi. 510, 747 ; Od. 8. 721 ; Od. a. 92, ^r,X\ 
" numerous ;" Od. \p. 326, *2tiprivwv, " clear-voiced.** 
—B. 

y ' kr\p, 6 and r) — the different genders belong to dif- 
ferent dialects or aeras of the language — signifies " the 
air," " a. state of the atmosphere," and nothing else ; it de- 
rives its meaning of " darkness" " mist," from the ad- 
dition of epithets, as 7roAi>c, " a thick state of the air ;" 
tpefievvrj, " a dark state of the air." Of r)£pLoc, Dr. B. 
says, that it comes from rjpi, mane, " in the morning," 
vid. II. a. 497 ; q€p{i| S' av£/3*/, according to him, " she 

2 c 



194 GLOSSARY. 

ascended in the morning," because, "a verb joined 
with an adjective, instead of an adverb, must be limited 
to ideas of time, except some words particularized by 
usage, avfievoQ, WeXovrrig, and some ideas of order, as 
7rpwTog, vgtcltoq, &c." Homer, then, has no adjective, 
rjipiog from rjipi, dative singular of arip, in which case 
" the euphonious f" need not have been inserted : why 
should he not ? why may not riipiog, as well as rrpu)- 
toq, &c, and those words <( particularized by usage," 
be joined with a verb, without referring to time? and 
why should it not be better sense and sound to say, 
t( she ascended through the air" and " the high-soaring 
cranes" (II. y. 7,) as to say, " she ascended in the morn- 
ing" and " the early cranes ? particularly, when Vir- 
gil writes " aerice grues" &c, notwithstanding that 
Dr. B. is of opinion that Virgil did not, in these in- 
stances, intend to repeat the idea of Homer ! 

"AXrjjUt, FaX^t, " colligo me" fr. aXiu), FaXta>, 
whence FaXfjvat, FaXac, tFaXrj, FaXrj, Heyne. Rather 
aXrivai, and saXrjyat; fr. e'XXw, as IcrraX^v from crrtXXu). 

'A*rjroc, II. <r. 410, <j>. 395; fr. ayr\Tog ; fr. ayctfxcu, 
as aipew fr. aypsw.— B. 

'A/SrjXoc, afidrjXog, " destructive," " causing to dis- 
appear ;" fr. a, and t'SrjXoc ; fr. tSetv, i. e. SfjXoc, as 
£kyi\oq, from KY}\tlv ; apt^Xoc, fr. apt-iSrjXoc ; the se- 
cond l being removed, and F changed into <x ; hence 
apiad^XoQf apiSerr]\og . — B. 

'Alvog, differing from fxvOog, signifies " a speech 
full of meaning ;" hence iroXvaivogis particularly applied 
to Ulysses, whose speeches generally are of that cha- 
racter, II. X. 430; it cannot mean, according to the 
common acceptation, either " celebrated,"' or " loqua- 
cious." 

With respect to t-rraivr) YltpcrtQovua, Dr. B. conjec- 
tures, that the reading in all cases was In aivrj, "and 



GLOSSARY. 195 

the dread Persephone," as it is found in a Vienna MS.., 
this phrase occurring invariably when the name of 
another deity precedes, to which that of the goddess 
is joined by hf, as 'AtSijc kcu W cuvi), kt.X. 

"AioXog, in all cases contains, as its principal idea, 
that of " various," either in motion or colour. Dr. B. 
correctly refers it to motion, in II. r. 404, applied to a 
horse ; e. 295, to armor; k. 149, to a shield; and Od. 
X- 300, to a gad fly ; to a serpent, II. jx. 208 ; to wasps, 
11. /z. 167, where /uiaov determines its sense. In the 
poets immediately succeeding Homer, it is applied aL 
ways to colour, 

'AKoor/jo-ae occurs only in one passage in Homer, 
II. £. 506 ; three interpretations are suggested. Dr. B. 
brings it from aKoaTr], the old and familiar name of 
" barley," signifying among the Cyprians, " food in 
general;" hence he translates it, " having fed." Aris- 
tonicus proposes ayp<jTi]<jac, sc. iv a\u yevo/uLEvog, $ta 
rrjv GTacFiv. And Schneider translates " dirty from con- 
finement." 

'A^/3/ooo-irj. The various significations of this ad- 
jective in Homer are : first, et the food of the Gods ;" 
afifipovir) eSuSrj, the adjective being synonymous with 
a/x/3poroe,0E?o£,&c. "immortal," or (allegorically)" excel- 
lent." Second, " the drink of the Gods" a/mfipomri Trocrig, 
Od. i. 199. Third, " a medicine" internally or externally 
applied ; thus V enus makes Berenice a goddess, a/x/3po<7trj v 
tg arfiQog aTrocTTa^aaa yvvaiKog. Fourth, " an unguent," 
a\oKf>r}, II. £. 172, &c. Fifth, Beauty, neatness of per ■- 
sonal appearance" Od. \p. 153, 157. Sixth, " an anti- 
septic," II. 7r. 670, r. 38, xp. 186. Seventh, " a perfume," 
Od. S. 446 ; but this and the sixth are probably synony- 
mous. Dr. B. denies this to be an adjective, because 
i.$u)Sr) cannot be supplied in all cases ! and understands 
tififipoaior, (with which, he says, tifxfipoairi has no con- 



196 GLOSSARY. 

nexion,) a/uj^poTog, aj3poroc, &c, only in their literal 
senses. Why may not they, like others of similar 
meanings, signify merely the exellence of any thing over 
others of the same class ? 

'AjbLvjLiiov, "excellent, irreprehensible," antique, ap.vy- 
fxu)Vj afxvFfXwv. 

"A\ig, FaXig, satis, II. c. 349 ; f\ ovx aXig, correct to 
?j 6v FaXig. 

"AXujuii, (aXtV/cw, not occurring in Homer ;) FaXwjiu, 
in potestatem venio, capior ; hence FaXwvcu, [jl. 172, 
FaXouaxt, /3. 374 ; FaXovrt, *. 487 ; FaXotrjv, FaXt^v, 
FaXw, FaXiou). 

"Aval, Fava%, ant. Fava»crc, and Favac, whence voc. 
ava. 

'Av^p, according to Dionysius Hal. Favrip. Heyne 
does not consider it digammated. 

'AoXXfo, aFoXFrjc, vid. £. 498, £. 270. Heyne says, 
" ad Homerum nolim talia referre." 

'A via, because aviFa, also aveia : aviFpov, aviFapov, 
and Suid. aviaypov. 

"A^/ui?, qu. a\ifxr\ : fr. aicr), as aityvog ; fr. atyivog. 

' 'Ajufpiyvog. This adjective applied always to a 
spear, has been made to bear two interpretations ; viz. 
" double-pointed" i. e. having a blade or lance at each 
end of the handle, or " two-edged," i. e. with but one 
lance, which was quadrangular, having two acute, and 
two obtuse angles. 

'AfxQacvireWog. Of this epithet, three principal 
etymologies have been suggested. 1. kv7teX\ov, is said 
to come from kvtttw, and thus the compound signi- 
fies a cup ; f arco Keicv^wg, the rim ie curving inwards." 
2. With the same derivation, that its form was " com- 
posed of two curves," Schol. Ven. 3. According to 
Dr. Buttmann, kvttzXXov is a diminutive oficv/Lij3ij: it 
signifies then, " having a KvirtXXov at both sides, or 



GLOSSARY. 197 

different ends ;" in illustration of his idea of its shape, 
he quotes Aristotle describing the cells of bees, as 
afX(f>i<jrofxoi } and comparing them to a^iKvireXXoi, " with 
one aperture above, and another below." Among spe- 
cimens of Hibernian Antiquities, may be observed ves- 
sels thus formed : two small cups, the apertures of 
which are turned in the same direction, are connected 
by a transverse handle, slightly curved ; these being 
too small for any domestic purpose, and of pure gold, 
were most probably intended for sacrificial uses, and 
being fully entitled to the epithet afiQiKvirzWos, may, 
perhaps, suggest a new, and not improbable idea of 
its shape. 

'Avriaw, fut. a<rw, contrary to rule, as also Sct/iaw, 
aau ; this is rendered necessary by the trochaic rhythm 
of avrtcLGtZ : this verb governs three cases, genitive, 
dative, and accusative ; with the first it signifies " to 
partake of;" with the second, "to meet, oppose;" 
and with the third, which occurs only in II. a. 31, " to 
attend on, to administer to (* the construction with 
the accusative, is probably an archaeism, and that with 
the genitive appears like an ellipsis. 

"Avrtra, "retributive;" avnra spy a, "retribution, 
retaliation." The quantity of i must prevent this ad- 
jective being considered a derivative of avrt, riu) ; it 
is, perhaps, more correct to suppose it a variety of 
avTiog. 

'AfiporaZw, " to miss, to stray from ;" fr. ?iju|3/>orov ; 

fr. CLfiapTCLVW. 

'AfioXyug, signifies among the Achaeans aKfxy) ; hence 
vvicrbg afxoXyy, " the noon of night." 

'Airetkiu), in its primary meaning, signifies "to speak 
loud,'' to harangue an assembly," from a^AXa*, the 
name of the popular assembly among the Dorians. Of 
the same family are the words tjwvu), tiros, tty? &c . ; 



198 GLOSSARY. 

this verb is not a compound, nor is anaraw, being a 
form of cnratyuv, a reduplication of a7rrEa-0at, acj>{) ; nor 
avaivofxai, coming from the neg. a, av, or ava, and 
the usual verbal termination aivw, lit. " to say no" 
in the mid. " to refuse." Dr. B. says, " many old verbs, 
apparently compounded with prepositions, are not so ; 
the syllables av, air, ev, £7t, Si, and Kar, are some of the 
most familiar in the language, and occur in all parts of 
words, and therefore, in the beginning, without being 
the same as the prepositions : in any case, a derivation 
from a preposition, or the existence of a common root, 
is as probable as a composition ; this is more evident 
in the instances of words, which are too short to con- 
sist of two parts. 

'A7n7VT7, Schol. Pindar ; " apjma e% fifiioviov Z^X~ 

e*v." 

f A7rrof7r>7Cj airroFeirrig, quia Ff7rw, II. 0. 219. 

'Apcuoe, Fapatog, " varus, tenuis" 

'Apyeiog, apyeiFog, hence Lat. Argivus. 

"ApSw, apdp.bg ; Fapdu), Fapdpog ; vzoapdza, vtofap- 
&a. 

"Ape, the nominative singular does not occur in 
Homer ; Fapvog, &c, contracted from the participle 
Fapevg-eig. 

'Aprifizvog, derived from the old verb tppw : hence 
the old Latin name of Mars, " Berber" in the Carmen 
Arvale of Numa, carved on brass, and exhumed at 
Rome, a. d. 1778 : this, in Greek letters, and the 
Ionic dialect, is FepFeg, or apeFg. 

'AvapivOog, " a bath" " lavacrum " fr. amg, sordes, 
and afxlg, vas. 

'AaKr)9rig, cKTKeOrig, " incolumis," lit. "tectus; fir. a, 
valde, and gkzw, (TKtVw, tego. 

"Apto, Fapw. — Knight. 

"ApKTTQVi FapivTov, vid. a), II. 124. 



GLOSSARY. 199 

"ApKtog, sc. iilaQog, II. k, "certain." — B. 

"Aotv, Facrrv, II. j3, 801, 803. 

'Atz/iPu), lit. " to cut off" fr. aTrb-Tijxvw. 

'Avia\og, II. v, 41, aRaY/>c, Dawes, aFiFa\og, ahw- 
a^oe, i. e. avi. — Knight. 

'AvaraXiog, " aridus," FavaraXeog. 

*A(f>ap, " continuo " fr. r?^o, p. m. of cltttu), necto. 

"A<I>evoq ; fr. aty(u), hence Lat. habeo ; or from <plvog, 
L,at.fo3?ius, or from an old adj. a<j)v6g, (as fiapog, from 
fiapvg,) a contraction of a^Qovog. 

'Airii) (yrii) " the Apian land; fr. Apis, King of 
Sicyon. Dr. Buttmann says that the quantity of the a, 
long in "Airig, precludes this interpretation ; not recol- 
lecting that if the a retained its quantity, it could not 
have come into Heroic verse. 

"Avrwg, ace. to aschol. from hog, " true" negatively, 
a-lrog ; adverb, airug, avTwg, as vavg, from vaeg. 
"AvTwg, a variety of ovrwg, used emphatically, (as II. a. 
520, e. 255, i. 595, k. 50, a. 338, $. 2(58, w . 413.) And 
hence containing the idea of uselessness, where the 
context leads to it; or even by itself, as II. a. 133, 
0. 342, o. 128, w. 117. In II. 8. 17, alrwg r6$e iracnv, 
a peculiar meaning belongs to it. Sc. " to all of you, 
in the same way (as it is to me,") in which sense it 
occurs again at Od. ir. 143. 

y AwTog, " floats" does not signify a "flower ;" fr. 
arifxi, flare. 

Batbg, "gradual;" fr. /3aw. 

Biog, fiiFog, Lat. vivo, fit6g, " arcus." 

BpvKu, fiopvKU, fiopu), Lat. voro. fiefipviccog, II. v. 
393, from /3pux w > j3£j3pux £v > P* ^4, must have come 
from /3pv?a>, or, have been formed as it is, without any 
present tense. — B. BouXo/xeu, antiq. fi6Xop.ai, the elonga- 
tion of o being ov, as irovXvg, fiovvog, &c. ; the sounds 
appear to have been similar ; the negative ov, being 



gOO GLOSSARY. 

expressed among the Spartans, by o, of ]3ouXojucu , and 
lOiXtt), the former expresses an active wish, malle, im- 
plying the power of accomplishing ; the latter a passive 
wish, velle. 

Bporog, " mortalis" fr. joat>, "poroe, or /3op<I>, )3o- 
poroc. 

raX^vr; ; fr. yeXau), " rident sequora ponti." — Ov. 

TivTO, Fevro, evro, eXto, tXero, as ?iv^o^> for rJX^ov. 

Tt^vpa, "any thing joined by nails;" fr. ytyw, 
yiy 0(j>a, wh. yocpog, y6ju(j)og. 

TXavKOg, " csesius" " grey " qu. yaXcaicog, h.yaXa. 

TvaXov. The dwprfe ararbg, " inflexible corslet," 
consisted of two yvaXa, or plates, one of which pro- 
tected the breast, the other the back, clasped together 
at each side ; that protecting the back was removed by 
Alexander the Great. Of the other, the Od)pr)Z moXog, 
there were two species, the tcpacwTog and the aXvmdix)- 
Tog, sc. woven of hooks and rings, the latter being the 
same as the chain-armour of the moderns. 

Aar)p, SaFrjp, Lat. levir, qu. devir, as lachryma, 
dachryma ; fr. SaKpv/uia. 

Aatypuv, either fr. Sdig or Sarjvcu, "warlike" or 
"prudent " the former always in the Iliad, the latter 
in the Odyssey. It signifies, in the later poets, " heart- 
rending." 

Auirvov, " ccena ;" fr. di-rro), ^a-rrcj, Lat. dapes. 

Aevrepog, " proximus " fr. Eevfit : as in Lat. secun- 
dus, qu. sequundus ; fr. sequor. 

AtaicTopoQ, or diaKTup, are verbal substantives of 
the same verb, from which Siaicovog, or Stafcwv is a par- 
ticiple, sc. Siaicu), Sujkw, "to hasten;" the quantity of 
the a prevents ayio being considered the source.^ — B. 

Atwag, fr. Se'kw, $Uag, as lupus, Xi/Kog ; pello, kIXXw. 

At}, " quidem" " scilicet," for das, imper. of Saw, 
scio. 






GLOSSARY. 201 

AoaaaaTO, " visum est ;" fr. Sda>, Sdarai (Sedrat, Od. 
?. 2£2.) SaavaaTO, and Soatxcraro, as Boclcfgoj ; fr. Qclcktgu)* 

Aova£; ft*. Sove&j, lit. " a reed shaken by the wind." 

Aop7rog; fr. %£piru) 3 Spzirii). 

Apifivg ; fr. Sepw, qu. SepifAvg. 

AvcrrjXeyrjg ; fr. Svc-dAcyw, lit. " oratf who does not 
care" " relentless." 

Avarrivog ; fr. dvg-l<TTr)fxi, lit. " one who cannot 
stand." 

1 E, Fe ; ea, Fa, eFa, FeFa. 

'Eavog, adj. quia, tFavog " of fine texture ;" hence 
"ductile" applied to metals, II. <r. 612: zavog, subs. 
M a robe." Neither iavog s nor any of its cases ever 
occur in the Odyssey. 

'EacjiOr), (lirl S' acnrig za(f>0r} } ) should come from 
eno^ac, rather than aVro/zat ; as the e must have origi- 
nated in the F, which more probably belonged to eVo- 
Hai, than the other. 

On the pleonastic use of e, Heyne says, " Omnino 
usu poetarum epicorum antiquorum receptum fuit, ut 
e praefigerent pleonastice; pro I, pronunciarunt ££; ov, 
cov ; klg pro tig. v. ad tt. 208. % dva U$va ; de hoc vide 
et ZXdo/jLcii, UXdofiat. Neque aliam originem habuisse 
videtur argumentum £, cum antiquius tempora augmento 
carerent; quod nunc inter antiquioris Ionismi vestigia 
referimus." After thus accounting for the origin of 
the augment, he proceeds to say, that in some cases 
c was prefixed to an initial digamma, as cFayc, &c, to 
which e, and a second digamma, prefixed, constituted the 
first reduplication, as Knew, Fa/cw, tFoiica, FtFoiica : and 
that the additional c sometimes was employed, where a 
F did not separate it from the initial vowel of the verb, 
as hfiLy tiaafiriv, saaa^rjv. Of this word (Id(p0r}) the same 
critic says " sine digammo." 

"Eap, Fzap ; haoivog, Fuapivog: lap, is not contracted 
2d 



202 GLOSSARY. 

in Homer to ?jp, which is a different word, signifying 
opOpov, and is not digammated. 

"Eada, eFada, evada, FeFaSa : in this word the quan- 
tity of the a varies, owing, according to Heyne, to the 
double form, a$w, rj&o, and 'aSw, a$£(t>. 

"EaXrj, eFaXrj. Vide aXrivai, supra. 

Eovov, Fecvov, eFecvov edvov, aveFedvov* 

"EASojitai, FeXdofxai. II. e. 481 . 

^EeX/mivog, eFeXfievog ; fr. F^Xeo). 

"EeXTrofiai, eFeXnofxai. 

'Elpyw, sFepyio. 

'EicrcraTO, sFeaGaTo; fr. fa>, Few. 

"EOsipa, FtOeipa, * e coma" II. tt. 795. 

r E0ev, FeOev. 

"EOvog, FeOvog. 

"EtSw, Feidoj, FtBov, Lat. video ; hence Fao-aro, 2H£f« 
est ; ziaaro, Sdfir) ; hence also Fa&aX^ioc, fc/ooFuSrjc, 
OtoFei^Cj loFeidrjQ, and ctXXoFfS?7c, Od. v. 194. 

"Eikogi, FeiKOGi, and fF^KOcr*, Vid. X. II. 25. 

"E^kco, FeiKt), Fouca, Bentley, Ffot/ca, Vid. It. a. 126, 
&c. ; FtFouca also appears, as in y. 158 and 170, and 
FeFcokuv, as |3. II. 58; Fnicajg, y. 386; hence Fao-Kw, 
FzFiGKb) FsiKtXog, FuceXog, £7nF£iK£\og, OtoFziKeXog, aFu- 
Kr\g, aFiKwg ,\. 336, aFuKur}, aFziKtXiog aFeicriXiog, and 
aFeiKiZto, ETriFeiKYig, juevoFeiKrig — aKw 3 cedo, has no di- 
gamma — hXap, hXiw, liXvio, lifia, upyio, %ipi*), necto, 
Wu), snag, zicaOev, EKaarog, ticaTzpBe and 'iicriXog, are 
digammated. 

^EcGog, ZKdTog, ZKi)(5o\og, ZKdTrjfioXog, ZKanifiiXtTrig, 
l/c»]Tt, zicvpog, and ekwv, are digammated. 

"EXeyxog, properly " trial by battle ;" fr. tXstv 
ey\og> 

r EX£vr). Dionys. Hal., and after him, Bentley, write 
FtXnn) ; it appears undigammated in II. X. 125, &c. 



GLOSSARY. 203 

'EXto'e, FeXeog, " a cook's table ;" cXcoe, " pity," 
undigammated, 

'EXto-o-w FeXidaoj ; but tXeXtcro-w-^w, has no digamma. 

"EXiru), FeXttcj, FeXtto/zcu ; II. i. 40, &c. ; FojXttct, 
8FoX?ra, and FtFoXira, as in Od. j3. 275, II. r. 328, &c. 
In w. 312, correct vanv livXirei, to iwc F£Fa>X7ra. 

'EXtt^c, F^XTrtc ; Od. tt. 101, and r. 84. 

"EXw, FeXw, volvo, glomero, includo ; as II. a. 409, 
where correct aXaS' eXcrai, to ciXa FeXaai. Dawes reads 
FetXai (w«Xai ;) vid. X. 413 ; a. 294, daXavcry r tXvai, 
correct to OaXdcray FeXgm'i (p. 295, fFeXa-at, &c. ; also 
FeiXu), hence FaXo/xevoe, e. 203, and FaXcw ; uXvlj, 
FeiXvu), vid. Od. ^ 479, hence FeXvw, FaXu/ja, FaXv$aa>, 
FaXu<£a£a>, FtXiKtg, FeXiKCJireg, FuXnrodzg. These words, 
however, Heyne says, occur in such positions as to 
render the presence of the digamma doubtful, sc. II. /u. 
293, fiovaiv ekiZiv may, or may not be fiovcrl FeXi^iv ; 
but in 7r. 569, Tpwsc zXikiottoq cannot be altered ; vid. 
Od. ix. 355, II. <r. 401, &c: and ?. 424, (3ovv\v Itt, 
hXnroSzarcriv, tells against the digamma. 

w EXoc, according to Dionys. Hal. FeXoc; but it cannot 
be so in Homer; vide II. v. 221, Od. %, 424. 

"Evzroi, Veneti, Feveroi: in II. |3. 852, correct IS 
( 'Ev£TO)v to zk FEvtrwv. 

"Evvv/m, and evwfu, Fevvv/jll ; hence Few, Fevoj, 
Fcwo), Fcvvocu, occurring only in the Od. sc. e. 229, 230, 
k. 543, £. 514 ; hence kcltciFeivvw, vid. II. \p. 135. 

Eoe, *w«5, making tolo, Ft^, Fetjv, &c, Fcoe and 
FtFoc; but ivg, bonus, fortis, ace. to Heyne, making, 
without the digamma, lv, Uog, tfjoc, v\vg : some gram- 
marians supposing these two identical, aspirated the 
latter. According to Schneider, irjog is the gen. ov; 
and Irjog, gen. of tuc, i. q. tcaXog, liyaOog, &c., another 
form of which, log, ace. to Buttmann, produced the gen. 
Kiwv, II. w. 528. 



204 GLOSSARY. 

"EiojXoe and svkyiXoq are the same word, thus, k-T)\oc, 
FtKtiXog, cF/ojAoc, £VK7jA.oc. 

'E7riT?pa, £7rtFrjjoa, Heyne. Dr. Buttmann constructs 
thus, £7r\(j)Epii)v ripa, making %pa the accus. of the obso- 
lete §jO, fr. ap<D, i. q. \apLg. 

'EvtVw and htlimo, are distinct verbs, according to 
Dr. B., the former signifying " to relate," "to speak 
of," the other " to reprove :" the aor. of the first is 
rivicnrov ; of the second, l\viiraTrov and Evivtirrov, this is 
properly Ivtvlirov, the t being radically long, which is 
not contrary to the usage of the second aor. : comp. 
7r£7rXrjyov : Iviircj is a reduplication of sW. 

"EvavXog, lit. *f ringing in the ears ;" hence signify- 
ing, from its incessant roaring, " a torrent" 

"EfiirriQ, *ifJtwug 9 qu. iviraai. 

'Ewavpatii), " eripio" of which only lirovpiov is found, 
(ace. to Dr. B.) governs the accus. when the relation 
of the verb to the object is immediate ; a gen. (or 
rather, a gen. with airo,) when the fruits or conse- 
quences of anything are meant : the root of this verb 
is hvpuVi as av%uv of ev%£sr@at. 

'EirevrivoOe and avrivoBe, come regularly from the 
verbs aviQu), avOio, and hiOu, ZvOw, which in another 
form, £vow, occurs in zvvoaiycuog, &c. — B. 

^ETrapKafisvot, (SewaecrcTi ;) ace. to Dr. B. the parti- 
ciple here, signifies " supplying," " dividing among." 
I would prefer taking it to signify " taking omens ;" 
lirapxofxaL, means primarily " to begin," and the supersti- 
tious belief of the ancients in the ominous import of 
the first word, or occurrence, that, in any transaction, 
important or inconsiderable, attracted their notice, 
need scarcely be remarked ; to the secondary meaning 
of the verb, is, therefore, an easy transition from the 
primary. 



GLOSSARY. 205 

'E7T£<TT£\pavTo (icpriTripag iroroio) ; Dr. B. takes in its 
literal sense of merely " filling the cups to the brim/' 
and considers Virgil ignorant of Homer's meaning, 
when he writes " vina coronant," " induit corona ;" this 
is not giving Virgil fair play, for, if " vina coronant," 
and " induit corona," be also taken literally, they will 
present the particular meaning which Dr. B. sees in 
the Greek phrase ; the fact is, they may be all under- 
stood literally, or all allegorically ; and in either case 
the Latin is a faithful version of the Greek. 

'EwriTpifioi, qu. e-irertpifjioL) fr. em trepog, " alii super 
alios." 

'Eiriicapcnog, Od./u. 123, obliquus, fr. KZKap<jai } Ktipw* 
'Etctjucmj, II. S. 483, fr. laio, irrigo. 
'EiriSegfe, adv. " from right to left ;" InX Sc&'a, " on 
the right side." — B. 

^EwiT^dig, supposed by Dr. B. to be a nom. or 
accus. plur. contracted from lirirriSeig ; fr. lirl toSz, " for 
this purpose." 

"Epyov, Fepyov, Fspyw, (zpyaZopcu,) tFopya, FtFopya, 
tFwpyeiv, FeFupyuv, (Bentley, Feopya ;) hence, aFepyog, 
^jLiioFepyog, EVTEaiFepyog, EvFepyog, EvFepyrig, KaKoFepyog, 
ofipifjioFepyog, raXaFepyog ; eipyu), arceo } Feipyu), zFzpytv, 
Fepyu), FEpZw, but Fepx aro an ^ ^ e PX arUL f uncertain, 
vid. II. 7r. 481 ; tFEpyp.ai-p.svog, vid. II. e. 89; FspyaOu), 
A. 437, and zFzpyaOev, £. 147. 

"EpSw, FepSw, (digamma inconstant ;) eppa, fulcrum ; 
fr. toSw, cont. fir. Ipii^oj. — B. And tppa, epEiapa. — 
Heyne. 

'Eptriprig. Bentley writes, Fepirip-ng, II. S. 266 ; but 
tpi is never digammated, nor is epiFrjprje probable ; as 
the root is apw,jimgo ; tpiavxnv and Eptovvrjg are also 
undigammated ; sppw, Feppu, eo (pmine Iccvo,) as in U. 
0. 239 ; hence, anoFEppuj, fr. which comes cnroFapato, 
awoFzpoy, vid. II. tf>. 2S3 and 329, with ?. 318. Dawes 



206 GLOSSARY. 

writes, mroFEp'^E, ft. ap-yw. Dr. B. says, cnroEpaE is 
the aor. of cnroipSb), fr. airb-apdoj, lit. " to wash away ;" 
of these, either is preferable to the first etymology, 
which is Heyne's, Eppoj being a neut. verb ; Ipvu), or 
kpvoj, " to draw," makes v short in its inflexions in 
Homer, though long with the Attic poets : in the mid. 
voice, contracted to pvo/mai, for the metre's sake, it sig- 
nifies " to draw to ones self, i. e. " to rescue" When 
a long syllable in this verb is required in Homer, the 
<j should be doubled; hpvadat is not a perf. tense, but 
a syncopated present* — B. Heyne says, Ipvoj, traho, 
Fepvb) ; Ipvu), tueor. 

'Ejosw, lipiii), fr. epto. The signification being double, 
sc. " to tell," and " to interrogate," it appears that 
there must have been a distinction observed in the 
orthography. 

'EjO£w, epiofiai, ". to question," is undigammated, as 
also Ipzuvu), epioTcuo, kpevvau), vide II. A. 610 : 'Niarop' 
zpeiu), a. 62, fxavrtv IpHOfiev ; thus too, Eipojuat, vide Od. 
a. 284, y, 69, 243, 0. 549, &c. ; in Od. a. 405, for ZeivoTo 
tpzadai, read ^uvot IpieaOai. On the contrary, FEipio, 
and Ftjoew, dico. because derived from Eipio, Feipto, necto : 
but aptu, eipofiai, occurs only in the Odyssey, vide /3. 
162, v. 7. Fepeoj is uncertain from its position in II. 
A. 651, 8. 182, g. 462, * 534, &c. In II. 8. 167, for &$ 
epiu, read &>^£ Fepel ; ip. 787, for vpfx kpzw, read vpfxi 
Fepeii) ; and Od. y. 20, for ovk Ip&t, read bv FepsEi. 

"EpojEOi), in its primary meaning, " to undulate ;" 
secondly, " to withdraw, to hasten away ;" and, hence, 
thirdly, " to cease, to desist." — B. 

'EpifiivOoi, fr. 6po(3og, hence opFog, Lat. ervum. 
'Evte, a dialectic variety of ote ; vvte is ») evte, or 

r/ OTE. 

'Edflfc, ZaOog, FevOvcFecjOoc, Od. a. 165, II. w. 94. 

"EcrnEpog, FEGTTEpvQ, FEffiTEpiog, Lat, Vcspcrus* 



GLOSSARY. 207 

"Erepog, halpog, Ftrepog, Ftratpog ; ace. to Bentley ? 
Fett?o sodalis, II. g. 239, ?r. 674, &c. 

"Eroe, annus, Ferog, II. /3. 328, &C. ; hence avro- 
Ferrig, k&aFzrrig, 7revTaFerr)Qog, £7rraFE7Tje, ftvaFErrje. For 
£7T£r?7(7£oc, Od. 7], 118, read £F£rr](noc, lirrizTavog, Od. 
0. 233, supply zmFtravog. 

'Erwcnog, F£rw<noe, II. £• 854, £. 407. 

f 'Ew, induo, Few, and its inflexions ; but ao, !</«, 
v#c/o ; fr. aid), and this from i'w, fyu, through all tenses, 
are undigammated : £w, «jlu, sum, ecu colloco, k%to, t£a>, 
EityU, erj/uai, rj/ui, rjjmai, sedeo, and its tenses, with KaBr)jiai, 
and 7rapr}fiai } are undigammated, as also are ew, tau, 
fiffw, mitto, its tenses and compounds ; but t£^af, cupio, 
i. e. we mitto, i. q. opiyo/iai, me extendo, appears al- 
ways Fi^ai, as if from a different root, sc. F*ew, Fix]yn, 
as in II. |3. 589, £ . 434, &c. ; in Od. ]3. 327, correct 
irep hrai, to y£ Firjrat ; Od. k. 246, is spurious ; II. <r. 561, 
for a/uKpu) 8' iar0»]v, read aficpu) FieaO^v. 

"Ew, expleo, according to Mr. Knight, Few, j3au, 
(5d(D ; also eFw, whence eW, ustulo, vid. II. r. 402 ; eVei 
k ew^uev 7roXljuofo, this comes, according to Dr. B., 
from aii), satio; according to Heyne the construction 
is £7T£t x (*£ *P 0V ) «w/«v, from irj^ui ; this Dr. B. calls 
the most unnatural of all ellipses : (why more so than 
e£ e'joov Evro?) his discussion respecting aw, and aw, 
may be settled by the digamma ; hence a§y]v and adrjv, 
or, probably, adriv, ciSdriv, dSriv. 

"Ewe, for wg, according to Mr. P. K. eFoc ; vid. a. 
II. 193. 

'EvSiizXog, Od. v. 234; fr. $k\og, SfjAoe, then 
" longe apparens ;" or fr. lv u\r], (S insert.) a nitens," 
it rather comes from lv Se'uXog, which, as well as Sa'Ar/, 
signifies " the heat of the sun," SaXjj and 'aX?j being 
as nearly synonymous, as S'iwkw, and tWw, hence due- 



208 GLOSSARY. 

Xt/ccu, OcL p. 599 ; and SaXero, which Aristarchus reads 
for Maero, at Od. tj. 288. 

ZaxpariQ, £ax/0£?wv, "violent, impetuous ;" fr. £a, 
and xp« w > <l Ui X £ P" W 5 fr* X ei P> nt * " making a violent 
use of the hands." 

Z«a, ?la, Od. 8. 41, and r. 593 ; qu. '<£a, fr. SSw. 

Zg^upoe, ZepJiyrus, Lat. Favonius ; fr. So^oc, as 
evpog, fr. rjwf. 

W H, swa, Fr?, Fjjc : fr. oc, Foe- 

"HiSav, Ftjd&jv, from a§w, FaSw. 

f H&5c, FijSvc, II. X. 378 ; thus, flSw, FjjSw ; there 
was also r/Sw, whence rjSoe, X. 318. 

HFapc, vide aapa>. 

^ROoq, FyiQoq, solitct sedes, vid. II. ?. 511 ; juetci Fridaa, 
which should, on the authority of Knight and Bentley, 
and the analogy of Od. £. 411, be read for jusra r ri0«i, 
hence, II. k. 493, aFnOeaciov. 

"Hta, viatica, Frjia, vide Od. fi. 329 ; e^itpOiro Friia 
Travra, and II. 8. 363 ; but II. v, 103, \<>kuv t via ttI- 
Xovreu, with Od. j3. 289, £. 266, and i. 212, are not 
analogous. 

"Htoc, a title of Apollo, Ft}iog ; ctju^i <re, Fijtt 0o7/3e. 

'HtOaoQtjuvenis, applicable, according to some gram- 
marians, to persons between the ages of fourteen and 
eighteen; but more properly to all unmarried indi- 
viduals, vide Phcen. Eurip. : fr. aiOw, fervidus ju+ 
ventd. 

^Hica, leviter, tacite, Frjica, vide II. w. 508 ; airdxraro 
FrjKct yepovTa. 

*HXoe, clavus, (FrjXoc uncertain,) vide II. /3. 46 ; 
apyvpoFriXog, a. 246, and X. 642, decide for neither 
view ; and X. 29, lv $i bi ^\ol, tells against it ; but rjXbg, 
fatuus, is certainly undigammated, fr. aXaojuai. 

'HXtj3aroc, inaccessible ; fr. aXtrtw, and fiaivw, i. e. 
qua vestigia titubant. 



GLOSSARY. £09 

"Hvao-o-e, Frjya<T(T£, and gFavatro-e, according to Dawes, 
Knight, and Bentley. 

^Hvoxp, Ftjvoi/>, vide lv\ Fyivottl -^oXk^, cr. 343, Od. k. 
360 ; fr. evw, (j>ivw, and w^, quia occcecans oculos. 

'Upiyevua, " the parent of the dawn ;" this adjective 
must signify actively, the accent being on the verbal 
part of the compound, and the substantive part being 
too far off to receive it. 

*Hp, Frjp, because tap, Feap — ^p in" the signification, 
" morning ," is undigammated. 

"Hpa, \aptVi Frjpa ; hence tmFripa (jiiptov. 

'Hpi'ov, tumulus, Frfptov, vide II. ip. 126, fxzya F»i- 
/otov. 

"Hjorj, Juno, FHprj, (^uncertain,) vide irorvia Fripr), and 
Xpv<r69pQvoQ v lipr) ; passages inconsistent with the theory 
of F, are, according to Heyne, to be considered inter- 
polated, or the result of an inconsistency in its use. 

'Hx??j Fjjx^j v id. !!• «• 157; 0aXao-<ra re Fr/x^o^a ; 
hence Fr]\iw, 7toAuFtjyj7£, 7T6ptFrj\^w ; but, dvatixng, and 
vipuxfis, disagree. 

Qepcnruv, "minister" a armiger ;" h\ Oepu), foveo, 
i. e. gwi res alienas curat fovetque. 

Gfjuow, Od. t. .542, impello ; fr. flew, riO^fxi. 

Grj/o, antique 0?7p ; fr. ^>€pw, analogous to 0wp. 

9w//, II. v. 669, " a fine ,■" fr. 0£*w, aliquid impo- 
situm, 

Owprjl, vide yvaXov. 

'IayJ?, FiaxHy and ic*x w > Fiax<*>> FiFax<*>> hence the 
variety in the quantity of the i, comp. II. S. 456, 506, 
p. 37, X. 463, with a. 482, <r. 29, 0. 10 ; Od. /3. 458, a. 
219, «. 395, &c. ; ziriaxov, II. e. 860, should be tFiFa- 
\ov. 

All tenses of a§a>, beginning with t, are digam- 
mated ; ISpis, FtSptc, 7roAuF($ptc, aFiSp«rj, &c. 

2e 



210 GLOSSARY. 

"lO/ia, Fifties, (uncertain,) vid. 7n\da<jiv WfxaO' bprnat, 
II. €. 778. 

'laivi*), lit. irrigo, qu» $imv(i». 

^Itcfiag, and tXij, perhaps FiK/dag, and FtX»?. 

"iXioe, Ilium, FiXiog, vide II. £. ore FiXiov aficfujULa- 
Xovro; but /3. 230, 2. 386, i|. 345, Heyne considers 
interpolated. 

'Ifxag, ifjLCKJcriD, according to Bentley Ft/nag, Fijuatxtrw ; 
many instances occur inconsistent with this theory, 
sc. 0. 782, y. 371, £. 214, 219, *. 589, &c. 

'Ijut, Ftjue, uncertain. 

^Ivec? Ftvce, Fig, vis; hence Iviov, Ftviov; occiput 
cum cervice, vid. II. rj. 269, \p. 191, s. 73, g. 495, &c. 

"Iov, Fiov, viola, vid. Od. e. 72 : see also Theocritus, 
10, 28, koi to jueXav Fiov £<m; hence FtoFaSrfe, FtoS- 
ve^eg, Fiozvra, &c. ; but log, "sagitta," has no digamma, 
vid. II. a. 48. 

'lovOag, villosus, (aira% lionfiivov,) Od. £. 50, Fiov- 

^I7r£e, vermes, Fnreg, Od. 0. 397. 
^Ip*?, turma, Fipy], (uncertain ;) fr. tipu>. 
^Iptg, Fcpig, vid. II. X. 27. 
r l(Tog, and '/a-oe, Fioog, vid. Sal/jiovi Fiaog. 
"IcrrjjuLL, novi, Furnfii, vid. II. <r. 420, \p. 312, &c ; 
hence, Fianop, vid. <r. 501, aFtcrroc. 

"Ictkw, Fktko), and acrKw, FtFta-Ka), vid. at k Ifxi ao\ Fkt- 

KOVTEg. 

'lariri, Ion. FfixriT), Lat. Vesta. 

"Irvg, rotce ambitus, Ftrvg, .^Eolic fiirvg, Lat. vitis, 
and 'Irea, Firm, <£. 310 ; hence yirea. 

r l0t, fytc, FiFi, Fi^tc, vid. II. a. 38; fr. *c, F/e; but 
icpOijULog, is undigammated. 

'Ian), Ftwr], II. S. 276, vox ; fr, twinterj. 

"Ixvm, '* gressus, vestigia ;" fr. ocoj, Lat. signum. 

'IioKt'i, FiiDKr), (uncertain.) 



GLOSSARY. £11 

Kavujv, " the handle of a shield? lit. a straight rod / 
fr. tcava, " a cane" 

Ke^aXrj, lit " covered with a roof ;" fr. k£jtw, e. q. 

Kvicrmq, odor ; fr. KvlZb), kvow. 

KoAooruproe, " tumultus" " eonfusa muUitudo ;*' fr. 

Kprivri,fons, qu. fcap^vrj ; fr. jcapa. 

KovajSoc; fr. k€voc, lit. ct the noise proceeding from 
any thing hollow? 

Kpora^ot, " tempora capitis f* fr. icpovw, a^jj, quia, 
tactui venae pulsatio respondet. 

Koupi&oc; according to Dr. B. signifies, "one 
united by marriage ? hence KovpiSiri aXoyoc, is used 
in contradiction to one engaged in an illicit amour. 

KjoT, contr. for koiOtj: according to Aristotle, for 

KOljULVOV. 

KvfifiaxoQ : fr. kvtttuj, i. q. Kucixpug, i. e. " arched, 
curved" 

AaZo/um, qu. XafiaZo/nat, apprehendo ; fr. Xafxfiavut, 
or Xat?w, qu. Xrj/?w. 

Aty, (cXatov,) {t nitidus, liquidus ? fr. XiVw, *. q. 
a\ei(pio, or Xiij5u). 

Aafipog, " violent, overwhelming? qu. Xaupoe ; fr. 
Xaw, Xauw, or Xafiapog ; fr. Xiav fiapvg. 

Aaifj.bg, " £^£ throat ;" fr. p. pass, of Xa7rro>. 

Ate, " a lion ;" according to Aristarchus Xic : Xte, 
" /if^fl ,*" fr. Xeioc. 

Atyojv, "a harbour," and Xi/nvr}, "a lake," (formed 
by the overflowing of the sea ;) fr. X/j3a>, p. pass., i. q. 
Ae£j3oj, from which came also Xu/jluv, " amarshy meadow? 

Aoiybg, "pestilence," fr. oXoiog, oXotFog, aXoiyog ; 
or fr. Xvyoog. 

Api/xbg, idem; fr. Xv\ix\, or XiXoifxai, p.p. ofXoiV 



212 GLOSSARY. 

A6\oQi " an ambuscade " fr. \i\o\a ; hence Lat. 
locus. 

Ao<pog, " the crest of a helmet," " the upper part of 
the neck," " the highest part of any thing ;" fr. Xiwu), 
\i\o7ra, q. Xottoq. 

Xvaaa, Att. Xvrra, " the madness of dogs," lit. the 
worm supposed to exist under the tongue of that 
animal. 

Awtoq, Od. a. 84, sq. " the lotus zizyphus," bear- 
ing a fruit resembling the date ; this was also the name 
of the sacred lotus, {water-lily,) of the ^Egyptians, the 
enigmatic meaning of which was also expressed among 
the Greeks by the Phallus; it likewise signified a 
species of trefoil, (melilotus pratensis,) Od. d. 602, and 
hymn to Mercury, 107. Of that species called rham- 
nus spina, flutes were made, vide Herodot. Melpom. 
177. 

Mdpvafxai, lit. " to fight with the hands" fr. fiaprj 9 
manus. 

Maarbg, juadcrbg, [xaZbg, " the breast ;" fr. jul/xctarae, 
p.p. of juaan 

Meyaipit) ; fr. fxiyag, lit. " to think much of" " to 
envy, grudge. 

Miyapov, lit. " the large room," " the principal 
chamber in a house;" in Herodotus, (Cleio. 47 ;,) it sig- 
nifies " the ante-chamber" or " hall of ivaiting," in the 
Delphic Temple. 

Mypia, <( the thigh bones;" when wrapped in fat, 
called wiova fxripla. 

Mopcjtvbg, " black ;" fr. opfyvr) ; or "swift" fr. fxapwrw. 

Mviiov, "any muscle of the body;" this word ap- 
pears to have some affinity to pvla, musca, or to ixvg, 
14 a muscle" (shell-fish.) 

MwXv, Od. k. 305, from the description of this 



GLOSSARY. 213 

plant by Eustathius, Homer must have intended to 
designate by it, " the squill bulb" vide Eustathius in 
loco. 

MwAocj i. q. fxokoq ; fr. fjieXei, hence, French melee. 

Na7r?7, " a valley between several mountains" in- 
iervallis ; fr. vi(j>u). 

Nsjueaaa), (without a case,) " to feel a scruple, to 
stand in awe," &c, (with a dat.) " to envy" " to emu^ 
late" 

Nwpo</>, " inflexible ;" fr. vi'i-pinco, analogous to po- 
7ra\ov } p(i)7rr)'iovt &C. 

SavOog, " yellow" " light brown " fr. l^avOrjv ; fr. 
£cuvw. 

SvXov, lit. "cut wood" fv.%vw. Dr. B. considers 
a7ro?vw, and cnroZwu), the same verb. 

BvXoxoq, "a thicket" a favourable place for an 
ambuscade ; fr. ?w, \6xoq. 

&(TTog, lit. " carved " fr. Ziuj. 

"Oapeg, " conjuges ;'* fr. aFtipiVjjungo, in II. e. 486, 
Bentley writes Fwpso-o-t, it was more probably bapsaai, 
vid. x- 128. 

"Oy Kog> "prominence" "elevation;" fr. cy/cco, i. q. 
Iviynb). 

'OSa£, "tt^/s the teeth" fr. 6Sa£a>, oSafcw, Sa/cw, 

"OX/3oc, "wealth;" fr. 3Aw, vo/iw, " to roll," "to 
accumulate." 

T OiSa, FotSa, and otfyia, Fot^a, vid. II. 0. 234. 

v O»?£, oir'i'iov, FoiriZ, Foirjiov, according to Bentley, 
vid. II. r. 43; Od. i. 483, &c. 

T OtKct, Fo</ca, efoiica ; fr. cjkw, FetKW. 

T 0(Koe, Fo(koc, Fo(K£w, FotKaSe, Fo(ko0£v, FolkoQi, 
Foikoi, vid. II. a. 19, inconsistent. 

'Otfiaw, recta tendere ; fr. oifxri, " via" hence ot/ua, 
and oLfxr]fxa^ impetus. 



214 GLOSSARY. 

^Oivog, Foivog, hence Lat. vinum. 

'Ota-roe, " the motion, or flight of an arrow," and se- 
condly, " an arrow" 

'OfcXaSw, "to crouch, to sink on the knees ;" fr. 
fcXa?a>, as odafi, fr. Sclku). 

'0\o(f>vpofjiai, " to weep, to excite compassion;^ fr. 
oXottto), " to rend the hair ;" perhaps, also, fr. o\og, 
and <l>vp(jj, lit. " to be confused, distracted." 

"OXuoa, a species of " rye," called in Italy olira. 

y O/d<j>aX6g, " umbilicus ;" fr. 6jude, (j>aXbg. 

^OKvoeig, " made of 6£va," i. q. 7T£uk»] ; the mean- 
ings of these are analogous, both containing the idea 
of bitterness. 

"Og, "suus," Fog, fov, Fov ; Ntoropa diFov 7raiSog, 
&c. 

'OuXajuoe, FovXafiog, " sl crowd ;" fr. ovXog, from 
itXccci. 

^OvXoc, " crispus ;" fr. FfXw, FsiXho ; ovXoc, i. q. 
oXooc, FoXoFoc according to P. Knight, vid. II. /3. 8 ; 
(5cktk Wi ouXe oveipe. 

'O/xow, "to swear " fr. o^uou, together. 

"OpKog, 1 . " aw oath r 2. " the thing sworn by ." 
opKiov, 1. " a treaty ;" 2. " £^£ victim, by the sacrifice of 
which it was ratified''' 

v Ovpov, " a distance," " a limited space," Fovoov. 

"0<j)pa, according to Clarke Focppa, vid. II. w. 285 ; 
Xpi»o-|(t) iv Si-irai, 6(ppa Xuxpavre kloittjv; but here the 
hiatus occurring in medio versu, is not offensive. Of 
this conjunction, as of <bg, oVwe, and \va, the significa- 
tions with the subjunctive and optative moods are the 
same, viz. " in order that ;" but, with the indicative 
o^pa, signifies "while;" wc, "as;" oirwg, " hotv" and 
*lva, "where" These conjunctions are joined with a 
subjunctive, in the second clause of a sentence, when a 
present tense precedes in the first ; with an optative in 



GLOSSARY. 215 

the second, following a past tense in the first ; or in 
oblique conversation, i. e. when quoting the words of 
another. 

As to moods, there are, in reality, but two modal 
forms of expression ; sc. a thing is either said to be 
(negatively, or affirmatively,) or the possibility of its 
being so, is predicated ; this possibility again is either 
objective, or subjective ; that is, to speak more intelli- 
gibly, either we are ignorant of the real state of things, 
and therefore, speak doubtfully ; or, disregarding the 
reality, we suppose that things are in a certain state, 
though they be not, or that they are not, though they 
be. For the expression of these three conditions, the 
indicative, optative, and subjunctive moods are em- 
ployed ; thus, we say, k -ycvija-Ercu, of an event, which 
is simply future ; h yivnrai, with respect to the oc- 
currence of which we are in ignorance : and h yivoiro, 
with respect to the probable occurrence of which we 
only form conjectures, regardless at the same time of 
the event, and even of its possibility ; but, this system 
of moods, notwithstanding its apparent simplicity, be- 
comes, however, in its application, involved in nume- 
rous perplexities ; for, the subjunctive, expressing those 
propositions of the truth of which we are still in doubt, 
naturally refers to the future all conditions so ex- 
pressed, because, though the occurrence of one event 
remotely past, may exercise an influence on another 
more immediate, yet, when we, using the subjunctive, 
express our ignorance of that remote event, the know- 
ledge of which is to us future, the fulfilling of the con- 
dition necessarily belongs to the future time. The 
principle of the optative is different ; for, though, like 
the indicative, it does not particularly belong to any 
tense, it is, however, by a peculiar usage, appropriated 
to the expression of past time; for, to apply these ob- 



216 GLOSSARY. 

servations to tenses, we must express present, past, and 
future actions, either unequivocally, which is done by 
the indicative, or conditionally by the other two moods, 
and when this condition depends on an event yet un- 
known, the expression of its fulfilment must of course 
be future. On the contrary, whatever with certainty 
either is, or was, if it depended on any condition, such 
condition cannot any more be doubtful, but must have 
been already fulfilled, because, that which depended 
on it, could not have happened otherwise than as it 
did ; hence it will be perceived that £evtco>, owotz 
'lkyitcll is correct, and that l^kviaa, oirore ocrjrat would 
be improper ; here the present also may be employed, 
provided only that it do not express an event now tak- 
ing place, (which would not be uncertain :) but one in- 
definite, and therefore, in some degree, or some part 
of it, depending on something yet unknown, as r<£ 
vvv cot fxlv eyit) c,eivog (friXog, "Ajoytt jueccw It /ml, cv cT Iv 
AvKiy, ore kev rwv drjiutov 'iKtojuai, i. e. "if ever 1 shall 
come there;" and as the subjunctive cannot be em- 
ployed to express past events, it appears that any- 
thing in these, which is indefinite, must be expressed 
by the optative, the proper vehicle of whatever, with- 
out any regard to time, exists as yet only in the mind ; 
hence iroWaKt juliv %hvi<rtf ottote Kpr}Tr}0ev 'Ikolto, i. e. 
i( whenever he used to come ." From its indefinite ex- 
pression of time, may be inferred, that usage alone 
prevents it being used after the present, or future 
tenses. To these three forms of expression, may be 
added a fourth, wherein we suppose a particular state, 
or existence of anything, at the same time that we 
acknowledge such not to be the case ; to the expres- 
sion of this condition, partly certain, partly uncertain, 
have been appropriated the past tenses of the indica- 
tive, except the perfect, which, containing an allusion 






GLOSSARY. 017 

to the present time, is not altogether past ; hence the 
Latin si esset, or fidsset would be expressed in Greek 
by the imp. plup. or aor. indicative. Homer is pecu- 
liar in using et with the indicative, as II. a. 395, (p. 
544, &c. ; and with the subjunctive, as II. e. 253, o. 
16, &c. ; this syntax is also common to the other Epic 
and Lyric poets, but is never adopted by the Dramatic 
poets. It has been suggested, (in order to conform the 
Homeric]to the Attic syntax,) to substitute u de'ye, and 
u ye for « Se ke, and a ke ; of these, the former never oc- 
curs in Homer, the latter but once, (Od. c. 206.) yk 
in Homer, is either epanorthotic, epanaleptic, or be- 
bseotic, with respect to the word next preceding, and 
can never be joined to koi, Si, or re, unless they are 
affixed to adverbs or pronouns, as tots, ode, evOdSe, &c. ; 
it is, for the same cause, never joined to any relative 
pronoun, or adverb of time or place indefinite, as 7rore, 
ore, noOev, but to such only as signify some particular 
certain time, as evOa.Se, KetOi, Kelae, tote, vvv, ert, eirena, 
irpiv, napoo, &c Of the correct use of this particle, 
the SiopOtDTai were altogether ignorant, and inserted 
it into many places, where the disappearance of the F 
rendered a syllable necessary ; its judicious insertion 
is both ornamental and emphatic in passages expres- 
sive of strong feeling. They also, from their ignorance 
of the principle of hiatus, removed it from many lines 
where its presence is necessary, viz. II. a. 333; /3. 105, 
107, 348 ; y. 379 ; ?. 81, 123 ; 0. 271 ; t. 403 : A. 187 ; 
v. 172; o. 247; ir. 322, 840; <j>. 33,340; x . 156; w. 
387; Od.rj. 230, &c. 

'O^eXXw, " to increase, advance, promote ;" bfyiikw, 
" to owe," this verb is used in the second aor. to ex- 
press a wish, the accomplishment of which, something 
has already occurred to prevent, and thus differing 
from those which are expressed by ei, tide, and by wc, 



218 GLOSS ARY. 

vug av, of which the former express a wish possible- 
but improbable ; the latter one both possible and pro- 
bable. 

niipivg, II. w. 267, " a hurdle? " a wicker case, 
laid on a frame supported by wheels ;" perhaps, fr. 
Triipoj, sc. quia virgce invicem se transeunt. 

Tlepovrj, lit. " the pin" or tongue of a buckle, while 
TTopTrri is " the ring" or frame in which the pin turns ; 
they are also supposed to signify different instruments 
altogether ; iripovr\, designating a clasp worn on the 
shoulder ; wop-im, on the breast. 

UepKvbg, II. a>. 816, generally supposed to mean 
"black /' perhaps the truer interpretation is "spot- 
ted" fr. TTEipw ; the propriety of this will be perceived 
from the Lat. "maculis distinctus" 

YloLKiXoCi " beautifully or skilfully made" applied 
to works of art ; fr. nodoj, kg\qq. 

IIots, " when ?" used also to lend force to an inter- 
rogation, as TiVrf, tl-ttote, hence Lat. meapte,nostrapte, 
&c. ; tandem is also used in the same interrogative 
sense, sc. quid tandem ? ri iron ; 

Ubn, original form of irpbg, occurs in composition, 

7TOTld£pKOjUai, TTOTtflXiu), &C. 

Upoxoog, Od. 8. 52 ; " a wide, flat vessel, into which 
water was poured from one more high and narrow," 
" a ewer.' 9 

Upd)r}v, lit. " the day before yesterday ;" qu. irpwUv, 
{r]fiipav-) 

nvO/mriv, " the base" " the lower part of anything ;" 
fr. fivQbg, i. q. fiadog. 

TlCog, " how" interrog. : wwg, " somehow" indef. 
In general, any particle admitting a double accentuation, 
possesses, when more strongly accented, a more em- 
phatic meaning, sc. 7rou, " where ?" nov, " somewhere ;" 
Tig, " who ?" Tig, " some one, &c. 



GLOSSARY. 219 

IIgju, u a flock (of sheep ;") fr. ttwjj, i. qu. Tpifyw. 

'PiyeSavoQ, lit. " withered from the cold ;" fr. piyog 
and Savbg. 

( Podo$aicTv\oQ } an epithet of Aurora; lit. "rosy- 
fingered" " having the ends of the fingers stained a 
rose color ;" this practice of staining the fingers with 
senna is still common among the x\siatics, and forms a 
part of the same system of decoration with the painting 
of the eyes, for the antiquity of which see EsseMel, 
xxiii. 40. It is doubtful whether this epithet is to be 
considered to allude to the particular hue of the early 
dawn, or merely ornative, as those applied to Juno and 
Minerva ; though XzvK&Xevog and yXavKCJirtg have been 
also thought to contain allusions to physical phseno- 
mena. 

'PvGiov, " booty" "plunder ;" lit. "the performance 
of a vow to the gods for deliverance from danger." 

Saicoe, (to,) "a shield;" fr. aeoxtKa, p. of craw, i. q. 

3Za\7riy%, lit. " a conch-shell" " a trumpet." 

2aujOwr?7p, " the handle-end of a spear" or, a socket 
in which it was inserted, when standing erect ; fr. crab), 
as (TTavpog, fr. oraon 

Erf^avrj, lit. " the coronal suture of the cranium;'" 
in Homer it signifies, 1. " the leaf of a helmet /' 2. " a 
helmet " 3. " the brow of a roch" 

^Tpevyop.ai, " to endure a lingering death;" lit. " to 
waste away, drop by drop ;" fr. orpayS, qu. GTpayytvo- 

fXClL* 

Sopoc, i. q. awooQ, "an urn" (for the bones of the 
dead ;) fr. cra£w, sarcio, qu. caopbg* 

TaXavpivoQ, epithet of Mars; lit. "bearing a shield" 
raXaw, pivog. 

TaXavra, lit. " (the dishes of) a balance " Lat. lances. 

Taxa. It is remarked that ra\u is an adverb of 



220 GLOSSARY. 

time, sign. " quickly" while ra\a is a conjunction. 
" perhaps " in Homer, however, it is always an adverb, 
except perhaps in II. X. 653. 

TeXog, lit. " the end." In Homer it conveys other 
different ideas, all, however, modifications of this, as, 
fjivOujv tAoc II. t. 56, " the object of our conference ;" 
(frvXaKwv reXog, k. 56, " the company" or " station of the 
guards ;" Oavarolo riXog, passim, " death" i. e. " res 
mortis, " the event," or circumstance of death" as x°P OLO 
riXog, " a dance" Sec. 

TiJ, " take" imp. of tyj/ui, for rri&i. 

Tifxrj, lit. " revenge" "satisfaction " fr. tiu>, punio, 
and 2. honor o. 

T6%ov, " a bow," the several parts of which are, the 
vevpa, strings; the Kopuvai, the ends, to which the 
string is attached ; and the Trrixyg, u the handle" the 
straight part in the centre between the two curves, 
In the plur. it signifies " the implements of archery," 
in general. 

TpiyXrivoQ, lit. highly polished ;" fr. rptg, valde, and 
yXrivri, fr. yXaw, " to sparkle ,*" hence yXrjvog^ splen- 
dor, and the old English, gleen, to shine, {gleam ;) 
hence, (C gleening armor." — Prior. Of the same signi- 
fication is 

TjOtyXfuxtv, fr. yXow, "to polish" hence, "gloss" 
Tp\g conveys the same idea in 

TptWiGTog, " earnestly desired." 

TpnrXy, (sub. rlfxy,) adv. " threefold" dat. sing, of 
Tp'nrXoog. 

TpvZu), (onomatopoeia,) f * to speak in a low, indistinct 
voice," " to murmur as a dove." 

TpvQaXua, i. q. rpHpaXua, " a helmet {with a large 
plume") 

TvtyXbg, " blind " fr. tvtttw and Xaag. 

f Y7rtti, the primitive form of vrrb. 



GLOSSARY. 221 

"Ywarog, " the highest ,*" qu. viripTarog, or " the 
strongest ;" fir. vwb, i. e. the best suited to constitute a 
basis. 

'Yirepfiiog, "haughty " always used in an unfa- 
vourable sense, as is also, 

f Y7T£p0iaXoc, qu. v7rep(pva\og, lit. " overgrown:" but, 

'Yirtphvwp, as well as ayrivcop, are used in both good 
and bad senses. 

'YTrepKydrietg, cont. r\g, and Dor. ag, whence vtt£qk.v- 
Savrag, " elated by, exulting in success" 

'Y-n-epifov, (sub. otKrjjua,) " the upper chamber" im- 
mediately beneath the roof: the popular derivation is 
virlp and wov, which Juvenal had in view, when he 
described it as the place " tenues ubi reddunt ova pa- 
lumbes /' but it is merely an extension of virepog, as, 
7raTp(jL>iog 9 irarpt^og, of Trarpbg. 

'Y-n-TivfiTrig, " arrived at the age of puberty " fr. 
tJv»j, (obsol.) " the mouth" hence, ?5vtov, " the bit of a 
bridled 

&a\og, " the cone of a helmet" passing from the 
top of the helmet to the neck ; when, in addition to 
this, it came down in front, the helmet was called <zju- 
(j>L(j)a\og ; into this the \6<f>og was inserted — this should 
not be confounded with the (f>a\ripa, or studs, which 
secured the <rr£0avTj. 

4>Xlj3c, " a vein" fr. <f\iw, " to bubble." 

<PiTpbg, " a beam," qu. (pvrpbg ; fr. (pvu). 

<I>o£oc, " conical" a conformation of the head sup- 
posed by the ancients to denote impudence. This adj. 
is properly applied to earthen vessels which were warped 
in the baking; fr. Qwyu) : the most probable etymology 
is 6£vg, with the asp. <j>. 

XrjXoc, " a coffer ;" fr. x* w > analogous to x £ tXoc« 

Xipvririg, fern, of x^p^Cj (t poor " fr. the obsol. 
\ipi*>i whence Lat. careo. 



222 DIALECTS. 

Xuptvg, " a labourer," hence, in general, " one in 
alow grade of society ;" in II. a. avdpt x^i:— this word 
is commonly mistaken for an adj. 

XYfpajj.bg, i( a cavern " fr. x£**>> X" w > \aivd). 

XXcuva, " an outer garment" " a cloak " q. x^ va * 
fr. \r)vog, Xavog, " wool," or, fr. yXiaivu), " to warm " 
fr. xaXaw, as heat acts by relaxation. 

XXovvrig, according to the old grammarians, " living 
alone " synon. with licTOfjiiag. 

Xoavog, lit. " a funnel" thence, " the cavity of a 
smelting furnace," " a mould of clay in which metals 
are cast," " a crucible." 

tyvxn, " the soul" anima } the vital principle ; as 
distinguished from (j>pr)v, mens, (" the intellectual prin- 
ciple," " the mind" lit. the prcscordia,) and dvfiog, animus t 
" the passions" 

*12X£, for avXa% } FwX?, II. v, 707, Kara FoAkcl. 

"Qpeo-crt, PwptGGi, II. £. 486. 

r Qc, ace. to Bentley, Fwc and Sfwg : it can receive 
the F only when it follows the word with which it is 
connected, as Xvkol Fwg, II. 8. 470; Oebg Fwe, &c. 



CHAPTER XV. 



DIALECTS. 



Of those different dialects of Greek, which were once 
supposed to appear blended in Homer, some account 
may not be uninteresting. 

The concurrent testimony of the ancients admits 
that frequent colonial migrations took place in the early 



DIALECTS. 223 

ages of Greece. Many of the northern tribes, inhabi- 
tants of Hellas, migrated, under the conduct of princes 
of the family of Deucalion, from their former habitation 
into the southern regions. These tribes, using the 
dialect subsequently called iEolic, partly appropriated 
Bceotia, some proceeding farther, settled in Argolis and 
Laconia : these, however, when the Heraclidae returned 
to Peloponesus, dislodged thence, fled to that part of 
the Peninsula called Ionia, which the new inhabitants, 
from the name of their leader, thenceforth called 
Achaia, whereof the former inhabitants were nume- 
rously compelled to take refuge in Attica ; hence the 
confusion of the iEolic (spoken by the Achaeans) with 
the old Ionic, and of the Ionic with the arQig, will be 
accounted for. This affinity of the iEolic and Ionic 
dialects was still more confirmed by the proximity of 
the Asiatic settlements of these tribes. The Ionians 
(for they still retained the name, with the additional 
epithet of Attic, that of JEgialean distinguishing those 
Ionians who remained in Peloponesus) remained long 
in the most friendly intercourse with the aboriginal 
Attics, which explains the affinity of their language to 
the Attic, as well as to the iEolic. Shortly after the 
plantation of the Attic colonies in Asia (Ionia) a similar 
emigration took place of the Achaeans to the adjacent 
part of Asia, hence called iEolia. The Ionic dialect, 
not a little improved by the intimacy of their tribe with 
the Attics, attained eventually such a degree of refine- 
ment as altogether to supersede the iEolic. 

The Ionians having acquired this literary supremacy, 
held up a precedent in their dialect, to be accurately 
followed by all aspirants to the fame of successful 
authorship. Homer constituted the ideal of poetic 
excellence, and the imitation of him formed the general 
system of practice in the art. The Athenians at length, 



224 DIALECTS. 

rising to a political superiority over the other tribes, 
cultivated their language to such perfection as to excel 
in purity, pathos, and all the artificial beauties of com- 
position, without, however, emulating the sweetness 
and smoothness of Ionic harmony, and to merge in the 
prevailing popularity of the new Attic all other forms ; 
as in the Tuscan, were lost, the various provincialisms 
of modern Italy. The languages of Greece then are 
the iEolic or Doric, and the Ionic or Attic. Of the 
Doric three varieties are enumerated, sc. those of 
Homer, Pindar, and 'Theocritus. Of the Ionic, three, 
that of Homer, Herodotus, and Hippocrates, with the 
cotemporary variations, enumerated by Herodotus : and 
of the Attic the four asras are those of Homer and the 
tragic writers, the historians, the orators, and the Atti- 
cists. The concourse of vowels borrowed from the 
iEolians, the Ionians adopted more freely. At the 
time when the augment was being added, and other 
modifications and improvements in process of adoption, 
Homer is supposed to have composed, and to the 
opportune state of the language at this time are perhaps 
to be attributed many of his beauties. To the softness 
both of climate and popular habits are to be referred the 
resolutions of the Ionic, as the commercial and every- 
day habits of the Athenians will account for their con- 
tractions. On the primitive, unsophisticated form of 
speech which Homer calls the language of the gods, of 
which some specimens are retained by him, vide supra. 
The particulars in which Pindar and Theocritus 
differ from Homer, and each other, are, that crasis and 
elision are more freely adopted by them : sc. 7repl suffers 
elision both out of and in composition ; aphseresis also, 
as a> 'yaOi, w 'XevOspe, w 'vcKraa, &c. ; their law of position 
is also less strict ; sc. Pindar suffers the correption of a 
vowel before 7A, 0A, Op, and <j*v, and sometimes before 



DIALECTS. 225 

<rA. Theocritus has before a mute and liquid more in- 
stances of short vowels than Homer, besides the abbre- 
viation of a syllable before a mute followed by n and v. 
Many syllables long by nature are short in both, as 
TTpuiav, ToiavTa, Xoxiaipa, irotuv, &c. In Pindar Osbg 
is a monosyllable and short, (Pyth. i. 109.) Hiatus 
is freely used by Pindar in a long syllable in arsis ; in 
every long syllable made short before a vowel, except 
in dactylics and trochaics ; and in a short syllable be- 
fore words, which, in Homer, are digammated. The- 
ocritus adheres more closely to the Epic law. The 
plateiasmus (the use of a for rj) is peculiar to the dialect 
of Pindar and Theocritus, and is by them more or less 
used, as they approximate less or more to the Epic 
style. The circumflex on the gen. plur. of second 
decl. is peculiar to the Doric after Pindar. To the 
Doric after Homer belong the formation of futures in 
£w, from a pres. in £w, and that of the fern, participle 
in oura, mora. 

Of the Ionic Greek, Heyne says. As to the augment, 
Iambic time has created a necessity for the more fre- 
quent appearance of the augment in dramatic composi- 
tion, and to this it has been considered so indispensable, 
that scholars of authority, in their emendations of these 
works, have thought its insertion necessary on all oc- 
casions, (vide Brunck on Bacchas, 1 123.) It has been by 
some scholars deem preferable, in cases of elision of final 
vowels, before verbs capable of receiving the augment, 
to consider it the elided syllable, and note it by the 
usual mark : but our business is with the usage of the 
Ionic dialect, and that as we find it in Homer. It is 
self-evident, that the augment cannot be altogether 
banished from Homer ; on the contrary, it is a reason- 
able conjecture, that it was originally assumed by poets 
for the metre's sake, and from them passed into the 

2q 



226 DIALECTS. 

dialect of common conversation ; but, whether the al- 
ternate admission or omission of it, in common phra- 
seology, was regulated by any law, or what such law 
could have been, cannot be definitely ascertained; 
since it is impossible to determine what changes may 
have been effected by the assumed licenses of tran- 
scribers. 

In the writings of Hippocrates, it is generally pre- 
sent, but this is possibly attributable to the interference 
of later hands. At all events, the poets, both Ionic, 
and after their example, Attic, prefix the augment even 
in cases where the common dialect dispenses with it, as 
ttjjvoxoeii II. S. 3, &c, which is elsewhere yvoyou, and, 
after the insertion of F, iFqvoxpet, as in several other 
cases where F intervenes after this adjunct, which was 
also prefixed to other parts of speech, as kuvoc, Ikh- 
voq, whence it would appear that a popular prejudice 
ran in its favour. We find compounds of prepositions 
and verbs, not merely varying with the exigencies of 
the metre, as 'iicQzpov, and il^ifyepov ; £7nj3/?o-£ro, and 
lirefii'icrETo, &c, but that there are some verbs which 
always have the augment ; thus we always find the 
final vowel of afi^X lost, as aiifefxayovTo, &c, which never 
occurs in the case ofirepi. I perceive that some scho- 
lars consider themselves justified in judging of the 
Ionic of Homer by that of Herodotus, and versa vice ; 
their usages in some particulars agree, as in that of the 
augment; but in other points, the widest differences 
are observable, the most striking of which is the omis- 
sion of the final v in Herodotus, as Xiyovcn bi 'Aiyvirrioiy 
while in Homer the v is in these cases invariably used. 
One may possibly imagine that the v was originally ab- 
sent from Homer, and was introduced by a later hand, 
as we find in Hippocrates ; Coray, however, though 
the restorer of Ionisms generally, has removed it ; this 



DIALECTS. 227 

conjecture is inadmissible, as without it numberless 
hiatus would appear, and this, we know from the use 
of the F, that Homer always most carefully guarded 
against. The most probable settling of the question 
is, therefore, that the ephelkustic v originated with 
the poets or aoiSoi themselves, and only in cases where 
hiatus would otherwise occur. Other differences also 
exist between Homeric and Herodotean Ionic ; in the 
latter, compounds of verbs and prepositions having a 
mute in their final syllable do not, as in Homer, change 
the tenuis mute into its aspirate, as atyzXtaQai, Horn., 
airzkiaQai, Her; Kadaiouv, Horn., Karaip. Her., even 
though the following vowel be an aspirate ; the dative 
form 7roAi, frequent in Herodotus, is unknown in 
Homer, he has, however, firin, \p. 315. In Herodotus 
we find everywhere wv for 6vv ; ktj for 7r») ; kwc, a/cwc, 
oKotoc, okoteooq, for 7T(jjg, uttijjq, &c. ; nor in Homer 
does oKt occur for ore, (the ao-o/ce with which we are 
familiar being sig 6 ay,) nor SsKOfiai for Sc^. 5 tne Hero- 
dotean ev for ov, is by some considered exclusively 
Ionic ; Apoll. Dysc. attributes it to the Doric also : we 
should rather consider it the original form retained by 
the Dorians and Ionians alone ; elision even of a short 
vowel is seldom resorted to in Herodotus, except in the 
case of Sm, and contractions are rare. The Tonic of 
Antimachus adopts with an almost superstitious proxi- 
mity, the words of Homer. In general, the phraseo- 
logy of Homer, and the cotemporary and succeeding 
Cyclian and Gnomic poets, bear a close similitude, both 
modelled after the same copy ; there are, however, 
some exceptions, as the Dorisms in Simonides, Atti- 
cisms in Theognis, and the indiscriminate adoption of 
all dialects by the Alexandrine authors. In the course 
of time many changes and innovations, called into being 
with new species of poetry, the Lyric and Dramatic, 



228 DIALECTS, 

naturally ensued, and at length, the Attic with its high 
cultivation, and scrupulous elegance, became the stand- 
ard of Greek orthoepy, and kut £|oxt?v, the language 
of Greece : the primitive language of Lyric poetry, too, 
became in Pindar, a comparatively recent writer of this 
school, when blended with some ^Eolic characteristics, 
the Doric dialect ; and the prosaic mixture of Ionic and 
Attic, shewn to us first by Polybius, became in some 
measure a popular form of speech. Meanwhile, after 
philosophical essays had now, for a long time, appeared 
in poetic characters, and after Xenophanes of Colo- 
phon, Empedocles of Agrigentum, and Parmenides of 
Elea, had been long teaching natural philosophy in 
metre, Heraclitus at length, and Democritus, being 
the first to desert these poetic examples, found a diffi- 
culty, however, in altering the established diction. 
History too, which owed its origin to the Epic poets, 
gradually receding from its original poetry, formed 
a language of its own, which is now termed the Ionic, 
and which, after being for many generations, consecrated 
in a manner to the uses of prosaic composition, was 
eventually superseded on its own high ground, by the 
all-pervading Attic. Hence, it will be readily per- 
ceived, why Herodotus, by birth a Dorian, used the 
Ionic language, and had any vestiges remained of the 
ante-Herodotean poets, the successive stages of the 
transition could be particularly defined. The frag- 
ments of Hecataeus, and Dionysius of Miletus, ap- 
proach comparatively near the Homeric and Hesiodic 
aera. As far as sentence can be pronounced on the 
surviving fragments of Thales, Anaximander, Anaxi- 
menes, and Anaxagoras, the writers of the Ionic sect 
must have introduced many variations. We know that He- 
raclitus and Democritus used the Ionic dialect, though 
the Pythagorean school is said to have preferred the 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 229 

Doric. But, long time passed away, before any law of 
Ionic philology was established, and then, only by those 
to whom it was a foreign tongue — the grammarians of 
Alexandria. 

To give any very detailed account of the Attic dia- 
lect, does not properly belong to a work, exclusively 
Homeric : it will be sufficient, in connexion with this 
subject, to mention, that after the laws of Solon, the 
most ancient specimen of the Attic dialect is presented 
in the History of Thucydides, whose language, which 
Aristophanes, Plato, and Xenophon also used, is some- 
times called the middle, (that of the Tragedians being 
called the old,) sometimes itself the old. Some of the 
peculiarities of this language, are the use of per, ao-, and 
%, in terminations of verbs for pp, tt, and tt ; of £vv 
for <ruv, and of a for m, as dau) for Scu'oj; kckjj for kcuw, 
&c. One of its most singular features is its crasis, 
the most frequent instances of which occur in the case 
of the article. 



CHAPTER XVI, 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 



* Res gestae regumque ducumque, et tristia bella 
Quo scribi possent numero, monstravit Homerus.'* — Hor. A. P.73. 

This remark the universal practice of Epic poets has 
verified : the Heroic hexameter is both the most an- 
cient form of verse, and, by its numerous caesuras, 
suited to all modes of expression, the sublime as well 
as the burlesque, the pathetic as well as the ludicrous. 



230 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

Of these caesuras, there may be sixteen, because the 
conclusion of every word makes an incision, ccesura, 
rojurj in the verse, and this may take place three times 
in each foot, except the first and last, if they were all 
dactyls : when this caesura falls on the apcng, {vide 
infra,) it is called masculine, from the strength of ex- 
pression thus lent to the intonation ; when after the 
first short syllable of the Q£<tlq, feminine or trochaic, 
and, as this usually occurs in the third foot, this cae- 
sura is called Kara tqltov rpoxatov ; this latter was first 
adopted by Nonnus, and by its effect recommended to 
succeeding poets : the masculine caesura in the third 
foot, called also the penthemimeral, and the audible 
caesura, is the most usual and harmonious : that at the 
end of the third foot, in medio versu, is both remark- 
able and uncommon, vide Virg. Georg. i. 358. When 
at the end of the fourth, (called bucolic, from its use by 
Theocritus, and other pastoral poets,) it is calculated 
to impart peculiar dignity and strength, and is only 
introduced by Epic poets, into passages descriptive of 
scenes of violent excitement and agitation, as in II. S. 
424-5. 

Tlovrtp fikv to. TtpMTa KOpvaatTac — avrdp ifrtiTa 
X'tpGif) pr)yvv[ievov p.tya\a fipepei, — ap,<pl d'e t anpag. — 

The Epic poets, however, sometimes form this cae- 
sura, after the fourth foot a spondee, as in II. A. 36. 
When caesurae occur at the ends of dactyls and spon- 
dees, they are called dactylic, and spondaic, and are 
considered objectionable, as the coincidence of the 
intervals between words and feet is inharmonious, and a 
verse so constructed, is said to want unity. When a 
caesura coincides with the punctuation, or when a long 
syllable follows the masculine caesura, it becomes, of 
course, more marked. Compound words are generally 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 231 

considered to admit a caesura, when the last syllable of 
first part falls on the arsis. Grammarians have been 
always in the habit of condemning the occurrence of a 
caesura, at the end of the fifth foot, i. e. the termina- 
tion of the line in a dissyllable, or two monosyllables. 
Bentley has remarked, that the Latin poets prefer, in 
this case, two monosyllables to the other conformation, 
because, constituting a sort of double apvig, they are 
more dwelt on in pronunciation, and thus render the 
inequality between the parts of the line less noticeable. 
He has also observed, that a dissyllabic word is never 
so placed, except when a repetition of the word itself, 
or its meaning follows, (z7rava\ri\pLQ, or iiravopQuaiQ,) 
but instances of the contrary are found, vide Virg. JEn. 
x. 195. The Latin poets have been observed to be 
averse to concluding a line with a word forming in itself 
an Ionic a minor e, because, in such a case, the final 
syllable of the preceding word being in aptrig, should 
receive an emphatic expression, which would be con- 
trary to the indoles of the language, in which no word 
is oxyton ; in these circumstances, therefore, the Ionic 
word is usually Greek, or such that the preceding word 
may have so many syllables, as to admit two ictus, which 
would weaken the second. The verse, called by gram- 
marians Hexameter icar IvottXlov, is formed of a re- 
petition of two dactyls and a spondee, as II. a. 357, 

&)£ <pCLTO §<XKpV%£(x>V, TO\)\& IkXvC TTOTVICL p.l]T1)p. Of the 

form called ttoXltikoc, or Xoyoucrig, i. e. resembling 
prose in its intonation, II. X. 672, is adduced as a spe- 
cimen. 

The name fietovpog is applied to those verses which 
end in an Iambus, instead of a spondee, of which II. ju. 
208, alo\ov 6<f)iv is supposed to be an instance ; but 
this word was originally written oircpiv. 

The <rvvn<pzia, in Heroic verso, is peculiar to Latin 



2S% VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

poets, vide Virg. Georg. i. 295. The Homeric Ivpv- 
oira Zr\v has been considered an instance ; but Her- 
mann prefers reading Ziji/. The same critic explains 
away, on the principle of contraction, those apparent 
instances of anapaests, and proceleusmatici, occurring 
in Homer, as 

II. i, 5. Boperig | jcai Zl^vpoe, rw re Qpyicridev ajjrov. 
(Spondee resolved.) 

Od. %[/. 195. Nea fiev \ fxoi jcarlaSe, &C. (Sp. res.) 
Od. i. 283. liXzovsQ | kev fivYicrrripEQ, &c. (Sp. res.) 
Od. <r. 246. "Ek&- | gtzIltoq sv\uke, &c. (Dact. res.,) 
&c. 

He also accounts for the apparent presence of a 
trochee in the first and fourth feet, as [lavr'tog, Od. *c. 
493, (which he admits as a license, but which may be 
juLavrloQ, fxavTuoQi) 'A(TK:A?)7nou, II. |3. 731, and avexpiov, 
o. 554 ; where he would read 'Ao-kAi^ou, and avtipiov, 
and make the i in both cases long by the power of 
the accent. We should suppose, in preference, avaxpi- 
oFo, and 'Ao-jcArpnoFo ; these may, perhaps, come un- 
der the head of what are called doubtful syllables, 
Xpovoi adiaQopoi, that is, neither definitely long nor 
short. But this property can be attributed to syllables, 
only in those situations, where, being preceded or fol- 
lowed by no others, they have no other quantities with 
which they might, byjuxta-position, be compared ; and 
this occurs not at the ends of numbers, but at the ends 
of series ofnumbers, hence the indefinite quantity of the 
last syllable of every line in dactylic, and some other me- 
tres. Of this, there are other more particular cases : 
the apcrig of dactylic orders, and the spondaic Biaig of 
the fourth foot, (i. e. the second syllable of the fourth 
foot, if a spondee,) admit the doubtful time, but only 
at the end of a word, as 

'EKn'tpaai Upiafioio irbXiv, «0 d' oacaS' iictoOai, 
Trj d' tiri [iiv Topyu) fiXoavpurtrls evTefai'WTo. 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 233 

On this property of the apcrig, vide infra, but the 
Oiatg in this particular position exercises this influence, 
because it is assisted by the emphatic caesura, which 
the simultaneous termination of the numbers, and the 
word produces ; because, except at the end of a word, 
the spondaic thesis scarcely ever has this effect. 

Elongation of short syllables, on account of the 
metre, is much more frequent, particularly in Heroic 
verse, than the conception of long; and, in the greater 
proportion of instances, this elongation affects the first 
syllables of words, because, here the metrical ictus is 
assisted by one existing in the word itself. Words 
thus affected are such as, containing several succes- 
sive short syllables, could not otherwise be introduced 
into Heroic verse, as £7riTOvog } 6vya.Tipeg, anovUGQai^Ka- 
juLarog, aBdvarog, &c, whichlasthas hence acquired a ha- 
bitual elongation of the first syllable which has been ob- 
served by the Attic poets ; and in compound words, no 
syllables are thus elongated, except the first syllable of 
the latter, or the last of the preceding word ; the me- 
trical ictus being, as in the former instance, assisted by 
the conclusion of the numbers in the word itself, as in 
II. r. 35, fxr\viv cnroenribv, and Od. k. 169 ; /3»?v Se Kara- 
\o<j)a$Eta, &c, though in the former of these instances, 
the elongation may be also attributed to the digamma, 
and in the other, to the duplication of the liquid. 

Correptions, as well as elongations, are the result of 
similar necessity, respecting which vide infra. Mr. 
Wakefield, however, in his theory of emendation, seems 
to disagree with these remarks, when he asserts, that 
on all possible occasions, dactyls should be substituted 
for spondees. 

One of the principal peculiarities of Homeric pro- 
sody is the production of syllables, naturally short, by 

2h 



2S4 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

the following influences, sc. ictus metricus, duplication 
of consonants, digamma, and accent. Of the ictus, 
therefore, in order to give an idea of the nature and 
power, it is necessary to premise, that the syllables of 
a verse are, according to their several positions, va- 
riously called, apcrig, Oiaig, and icaraArj^c • the series 
of which these are constituent parts, receives on its 
first syllable, thence called apoig, an elevation of the 
voice, called ictus, as /meiXixioig : after this rise, to use 
Thiersch's definition, the tone sinks again, on the one 
long, or two short syllables which follow, and this part 
of the series is therefore called the Qiaig : in this Oimg, 
the voice in a manner fluctuates, without finding a 
point of rest, until it falls upon another long syllable, 
by which the series is completed, and made to consti- 
tute a whole, as juiikixtoig : this conclusion, in turn, 
may serve as the apcrig of a new series, as apZuav 7rpo- 
rtpoi ; or, it terminates the series, and then, in order to 
moderate the vehement flow of the syllables, a single 
syllable may be subjoined, called Karakrfeig : the syl- 
lable or syllables on which the voice sinks, are called 
Oimg, with regard to the preceding apmg, and with 
reference to the following elevation, avcucpovatg. It is 
necessary then, says Thiersch, that this series, in which 
measure and countermeasure are produced be repeated ; 
that these series, which as two wholes appear again as 
measure and countermeasure, have each a catalexis ; and 
that both these series combine into a whole, which 
is effected by raising the catalexis in the middle to a 
thesis ; and thus, the complete series receives the form 
of a perfect dactylic hexameter. This ictus, then, ex- 
ercises a producing power on the first syllable of a foot, 
otherwise short, as Si fiiya : respecting this pheno- 
menon, the following canons may, from an examination 
of the text, be laid down. 1. A final long vowel or 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 235 

diphthong, immediately preceding an initial vowel, is 
under the influence of the ictus, long, otherwise short : 
(of this more under hiatus.) 2. A short vowel, fol- 
lowed by any mute and p, or by a lenis or aspirate mute 
and A, is long or short, as it is or is not under ictus. 
3. A syllable in the beginning or middle of a word, 
consisting of a short vowel followed by a single conso- 
nant, may, by the ictus, become the first syllable of a 
dactyl or spondee. 4. In the beginning or middle of 
a word, a short vowel, not followed by any consonant, 
is sometimes employed as the first syllable of a dac- 
tyl, as a. 337, Sloylveg, Od. k. 169, /caraAo^aSTa, read act 
by Eustath. ; A. 541, "dopi te, of this, the instances are 
rare. 5. At the end of a word, a short vowel, followed 
by a consonant in the same word, may be long by ictus, 
and begin a dactyl or spondee, as y. CO, -rriXeKVQ &g ; 310, 
S'uppov apvag\ Z>. 462, rig ctinjertv, and mirovp'iv, 495. 
No genuine Greek word, except 2k and 6vx, ends in 
any consonant, but <x, v, p, which, as well as A, p., 8, 
when accented, are double in pronunciation. 6. A short 
final vowel, before an initial consonant, may be the 
first syllable of a dactyl, as S. 15 5, KaaiyvriTt Oavarov; 
€. 156, TrciTtp'i $1 yoov ; 525, oirl va<pea. The conso- 
nant being in these cases generally one of the six men- 
tioned in the preceding canon. 7. A short final vowel 
before any of the same six consonants, may begin a 
spondee, asS. 118, lift vevpy ; s. 308, airo pivbv ; 0. 392, 
Si pcKJTty.i &c. From these the following negative corol- 
laries may be deduced : 1 . In the beginning or middle 
of a word, a short vowel, followed by a long vowel or 
diphthong, cannot be the first syllable of a spondee. 

2. A short final vowel, preceding any initial consonant, 
except A, p> V, p, a, §, cannot begin a spondee. And 

3. A short vowel, followed by an initial vowel, cannot 
begin cither a dactyl or spondee. 



286 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

These remarks naturally suggest others respecting 
syllabic quantity generally. In this, the most remark- 
able phenomenon is that noticed by Dawes, in the 
canon, sc. a long vowel or diphthong in the end of a 
word, when the next word begins with a vowel, is made 
short. The principle on which this abbreviation is 
effected, is a species of elision, which, from the two 
times of which the long vowel or diphthong consists, 
removes one ; leaving but a single time, i. e. a short 
syllable. This elision, or abbreviating influence, how- 
ever, is counteracted of course by the ictus, and also 
fails to act on any long syllable, formed by the coalition 
of a long final vowel, with a short one preceding, such 
as eio, (the s being mute;) these are invariably long; in 
violation of this principle, occur II. a. 15, and 374, 
Xpycritt) ava gk7]tttq^ ; y. 152, SevSpiq IcfrsZo p.zvoi, and 
A. 605, xTfxp^w ijiteio. Of these instances, the first may 
be reconciled to the law, by reading (jk{]ittq(^ ava yjpv- 
ai^ ; the second, by substituting StvSpto; and the 
third by emending to 'AxiAAa), r'nrre di at X9 e ^' ^ 
syllable formed by the coalition of two long vowels, or a 
diphthong not final is always long, or a crasis of a long 
vowel and diphthong, vide II. f. 349, rj ov\ &\ig, &c. A 
syllable consisting of a naturally short vowel, followed 
by 5, ?, \p, or tivo consonants, the first not a mute, and 
the second X or p, is long by position, whether they be in 
the same syllable or not ; in some cases this position is 
violated, as II. /3. 465, irpo\iovTo ^Kafxav^ptov, 63b, oi 
re ZaKwQov, and 824, ot Ss ZiXnav; but only because 
the proper names could not otherwise be introduced. 
A syllable formed of a short vowel, followed by any mute 
and p, or by an aspirate or lenis mute, and\, is of doubt- 
ful quantity, as the vowel and following consonants are 
pronounced or not, in the same syllable ; vide II. a. 13, 
109, 609 ; 0. 323; <. 382 ; Od. k. 234, &c. 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 237 

On this subject, Mr. Knight says, " in no poetry, at 
any time, could a syllable be really made short before 
two consonants : — the penultima t, in such words as 
' AiyvnTioi, lariaia, should be sounded as a soft breath- 
ing like the Y in our own language, as yet, yes, &c. sc. 
kiyvn-r-yoi, &c. ; — nor in Homeric versification can a 
syllable be considered short, in which two liquids, a 
mute and liquid, a consonant breathing or liquid, or 
any other similar combination of letters followed by a 
vowel, except A or p following a consonant. Such in- 
stancs as Tvorap.oio SfcajuavSjOOu, cigtv ZeXeirjg, vXrjecrcra 
ZaKwOog, are not violations of this principle ; for the 
ancient ^Eolians and Ionians wrote Kap.avdpoc, AsXeia, 
AaicvvOog, &c, as we see on the coins of Zancle and 
Naxos, AcivkXyi and Nax«L>v." 

The Attics and Alexandrines used to shorten a 
syllable before any liquid subjoined to any of the lenes 
or aspirate mutes ; this practice is observed in the 
Batrachomyomachia, which, together with the causes 
already adduced, tells strongly against its claims to any 
other than an Attic origin. The ancient poets used 
to elide a long vowel or diphthong before a short initial 
vowel ; the usage of the Attics was different, with them 
the long syllable formed crasis with the other ; this 
was the consequence of the Attics employing a more 
oxyton pronunciation ; hence, also, the difference of 
syllabic quantity in the words t'Acwe, vtwg, &c. ; the 
pronunciation of the Latins was, after the ancient ex- 
ample, baryton, admitting no accent on the last syllable 
of any word, except where it was necessary to dis- 
tinguish two words similarly spelt. Crasis does not 
occur in Homer, except between the article or pro- 
noun, and an initial short vowel following : Kaya, irpov- 
TTB/iipt, wpovrvipE, &c, should be written separately kol 
zyw, &c, for, had the first syllables of such words been 



%38 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

made long by crasis, they would stand, in some in- 
stances, as the initial syllables of lines. Words as yet, 
were merely in juxta-position, not in actual conjunc- 
tion, on which principle, in compound verbs, the aug- 
ment is never prefixed to the preposition, but always 
comes between it and the verb. Among the Attic 
poets, not including the comedians, the aspirate or 
dense breathing, F-, exercised no prosodiac power what- 
ever ; but in Homer, Heliodorus attributes to it the 
power of producing, which, in order to prevent the 
indiscriminate occurrence of hiatus, (which could occur 
only in caesura,) must be conceded. In Pindar also, it 
must have had the same power, for hiatus occurs only 
in these places where h or F, in the old dialect, fol- 
lowed a vowel. 

Respecting the metrical power of the other breath- 
ing H, nothing can be now ascertained, as it had been 
obsolete before the time of the Alexandrines, except 
in some obscure towns of Italy, Crete, and Peloponesus, 
which, in their search after vestiges of the original 
language, they injudiciously disregarded. Priscian, 
however, attributes to it the same power as to the aspi- 
rate : he states, that the iEolians used to employ the 
digamma as a simple consonant, sc. 6i6/j.evog FeXevav ; 
the Latins made a similar use of its equivalent V, sc. 
at Venus; they also used it as a double consonant, sc. 
Ntcrrojoa Se Fov 7rmdbg, while the Latins attributed the 
same power to V, in the perfect and pluperfect tenses 
of the fourth conjugation, sc. cupli, cuplvi, &c. : they 
sometimes considered it of no effect, as afi^Q 8' Fetpa- 
vav ; by the Latins, too, its presence was similarly 
overlooked, sc. "sine i?ividia" Ter., where the four 
first syllables must be scanned as a tribrach : it also 
supplied the place of the aspirate on some occasions. 

It appears from the statement of Priscian, (Gram. 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 239 

A.D. 600,) that the ^Eolic poets elided e before F, from 
Se, t£, ye, &c, but in Homer, it is of so rare occurrence, 
and in all passages not interpolated, the irregularity is 
so easily emended, that the reality of the practice is 
questionable. On the same authority it has been 
transmitted that the ^Eolians also used F for h in the 
personal pronoun, 3rd sing.; and in Homer a short vowel 
is always sustained before its dat. sing., whence Bentley 
and Heyne have written Fot ; that only one case should 
have had this peculiarity of pronunciation is so incre- 
dible, that it must be extended to the others also : 
although this orthography may possibly have been 
resorted to merely to distinguish it from the nom. plur. 
From the Heraclean table it appears that the digamma 
may be suppressed in compound words, as itydifxog, from 
Fig, Fi<f>i ; as k and A were removed from apapKejg and 
\eifiu) ; but when a consonant, liquid or breathing, was 
removed, the following syllable was made long, as tjwq, 
from haFoc ; ?\vg, from hzvq ; rieXiog, from aFaXiog ; rj/uii, 
from £<x/ui, and such are always marked with a circumflex ; 
in this way the duplication of vowels also may be ac- 
counted for, as ei\S(vp from FsASa^, Upyto from Fspyw, 
if they are not rather to be considered as augments. 
It is worthy of remark that abbreviations in writing 
arose from the conventional habit of understanding 
that certain letters, though not written, were to be 
sounded in particular places, thus, Larcna was written 
where Larcana was to be sounded, r was written for rt, 
&c.j and wherever the voice dwelt a consonant was 
doubled, as otti, &c, or a vowel, principally u, inserted. 
In Homer, when we find a vowel lcng before a 
single mute consonant, we may naturally conclude that 
consonant to have been either aspirated or doubled in 
pronunciation, as rvdevg, originally tvtQzvq ; on the 
same principle 0?'//3>j was at first written n'//3rj. When 



240 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

two aspirates or liquids come together, or one or other 
of these is joined to a mute, the syllable will be long. 
The practice of the Attic poets in this particular was 
to consider a vowel short before ajx, kv, ttv, and r/x, 
but in these combinations, the first letter received 
scarcely any pronunciation : in Homer, on the contrary, 
a vowel before these is always long ; though he admits 
of the junction of X or p to a mute, without any ex- 
tension of the preceding vowel. We find te/ulvei in one 
instance, II. v. 707. We also read avSpoY^ra and 
^eyvafupEv, where we may, without violence, read a$po- 
Trira, iyafxipev, or iicafupEv, particularly when the adj. 
adpbg, " adult," offers itself as a very probable etymo- 
logy for aSporriQ. A short vowel preceding a and a 
mute, is long in Greek, though generally short in Latin ; 
we read, however, ttoXvgtcl^vXov 6 1 'Iormictv, but this 
being a proper name, is not amenable to any law, and 
Hermann supposes the extrusion of a letter, as laXbg 
and tvttclvov have been written for Iv&Xbg and TVfxiravov. 
We also find a syllable short before GKEirapvov, Od. t. 
237, which may be similarly accounted for. 

With respect to the metrical power of the digamma, 
it may be remarked, in addition to previous observa- 
tions, that the digamma was the characteristic letter of 
the oblique cases of masculine and neuter words ter- 
minating in og and vg, feminines in id, tog, or vg, a and r\, 
though it is required in the genitive plural by metre 
only ; analogy, however, requires its presence alike in 
all ; sc that oFo was the gen. sing, of 2nd decl., ov 
having been probably oF, for v could not have been in- 
troduced by any etymology, though it frequently re- 
placed the F ; thus, the gen. of Uirsog is TIeteujo, which 
must have been UeteoFo : the long quantities also in 
'iXTou and avtiplov, which occur each but once, were 
originally FtAioFo and avEiptofo', it also effected the 






VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 241 

productions of such quantities as \epuijv, xepzfuv, from 
\ffpeFc ; and that of the v, in kh<x£0' vtt l\vog, II. <f>. 318, 
fr. iXvfog. 

Dawes, not supposing the aspirate sufficient to 
sustain the metre, would prefix F to the possessive and 
relative pronouns ; but the power of both breathings was 
the same. In a line of Alcman, the pronoun 6v begins 
with h ; but, in Homer, the same word is written kov, 
toio, and siqog, occasionally contracted to ov ; hence it 
appears that the word was KcFoc, the regular adjective 
of ho, which was variously declined FeFaFog, or KFeFo 
and zFoio, contracted to kFoF, written at present kov, and 
by an elision of €, bv. The authors of the Ven. Sch. 
explain kriog to be the gen. of zvg, bonus, the gen. plur. 
of which is latov or heaFwv. Though the ancient gram- 
marians have laid down rules for regulating the posi- 
tion of h, yet it does not appear to have been directed 
by any. The aspirate, both vowel and consonant, as 
well as F, were frequently elided, as, <rvg, vg ; (pi], i], 
&c, and the futures of verbs thus losing the characte- 
ristic c, through ignorance of which the ancient scho- 
liasts have taken them for present tenses : whether 
avrap, Sovpv, TrovXvg, &c, were ever written with F, 
as Dawes and Burgess have said, is uncertain ; for, 
though the u was inserted for F in some cases, it does 
not follow that it superseded it in all instances, because 
ov, as has been already remarked, is but the elongation 
of o. Diphthongs were used much more generally in 
the old than the more recent Greek, thus, h/xi is written 
in the first Sigean inscription, while the second has 
ijuii. Some grammarians, however, believe, that in 
the more ancient forms of the language, several conso- 
nants since lost, occupied places subsequently filled by 
vowels. 

The aspirate, like F, may extend the preceding as 
2i 






£42 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

well as the succeeding vowel, but not both at the same 
time ; hence we have vi}bg and vsiog, kpqviovoq and 
Kpoviwvog, but not vr\bjg or Kpovluvog : to this observa- 
tion Ylep(Tr)ci and QpTojvog are exceptions, but one of 
the long syllables derives its quantity from the p. 

With respect to the third mode of production, viz., 
the duplication of consonants, it has been already re- 
marked that the letters thus affected are k, X, ju, v, 7r, 
p, a, r, sc. ic in TreXiiacio, TreXeKKrjcnv, and gcikkoq, II. v. 
612, Od. £ . 244, and Hes. a. 364. X, after the aug- 
ment, and in compound words, when it is the initial 
letter of the second part, ju, in various instances, as 
ajujuopog^ if.ijj.aQzq, 'ifijusvaL, tfifiopz, Iv^aXtag, (piXo/uiiuLZi- 
Sf}c, and 'ijLijusvai. v, in avvifyzXog, tvveira, Ivvv^rog, 
ayavvKpoq. p, after the augment and in compounds. 
ir, in adverbial compounds of the pronoun og, as oTnriog, 
07T7T?7, gttttots, &c. a-, in the middle of roots, in com- 
pounds, after the augment, in the dat. plur. term. <n, 
and in verbal term, aa and <rw, particularly when it is 
substituted for B, as fypaZ,**), Qpatjaru) ; and r, in otti, 

OTTEO, OTTEV, &C. 

The duplication of $ in the middle of words has 
arisen from an ignorance of the digamma, and all in- 
stances should be written with a single $. 

The acute accent also is supposed to have a double 
power in metrical quantities, viz., that of elongating 
the syllable on which it falls, and of sinking the quan- 
tity (if long) of the preceding or following. 

Of Hiatus. — Heyne says, "the question of hiatus 
is one from which, as belonging exclusively to Homer 
and Hesiod, the consideration of all other poets is ex- 
cluded. To one who has ever read, with a discriminating 
ear, 100 lines of Homer, it must have become evident 
that he did most studiously avoid hiatus ; but that, on 
the other hand, after all the available remedies of 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 243 

emendation, many instances still remain, either through 
ignorance of transcribers or design of the poet, cannot 
be denied. From the class of hiatus, properly so 
called, must be excepted those instances in which a 
long final vowel or diphthong, or a short and long 
vowel blended in crasis, (as SevSptu) t(j>. y. 152,) precede 
an initial vowel, and this was the only hiatus admitted 
by the Latin poets. On this subject Dawes' canon is, 
" a long final vowel or diphthong, preceding an initial 
vowel, is short," (except sustained by ictus.) This effect 
is accounted for above by supposing a species of elision 
not sufficiently decisive to remove the final vowel, but 
only sinking its quantity : these, however, sometimes 
retain their long quantity even in thesis, when the 
hiatus occurs between two feet, and is therefore almost 
imperceptible, as n lv, qc kcikojq ; this occurs most fre- 
quently in the fourth thesis, as II. |3. 231, S. 410. The 
diphthong m is never thus situated, except when sepa- 
rated by punctuation from the following word, as 
KuvQaiy a AX', II. e. 685, in which case also the hiatus 
is unobtrusive ; nor is a hiatus after a short vowel 
offensive if that vowel be i of the dat. sing, ord decl., 
or v ; or if they are separated by punctuation; between 
the first and second feet ; in trochaic caesura of the 
third; or, in medio versu, as remarked by Hermann. It 
is conjectured that other hiatus after short vowels, in 
which cases they are vitiosi, should be removed by the 
insertion of F or particles : by the former the greater 
number of instances in Homer may be removed, and 
such as these two cannot amend must be accounted for 
by the hypothesis, that it was considered by transcribers 
an Epic peculiarity, and the neglect of metrical accu- 
racy. To the later Epic poets, to whom F was un- 
known, the Iliad and Odyssey, with their hiatus, 
presented &n exemplar vitiis imitabile. Hiatus appears 



244 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

with peculiar frequency in Herodotus, from the omission 
of the ephelcustic v, though the softness of the Ionic 
pronunciation might, at first view, appear abhorrent 
from the irregularity. In Hesiod, it is remarkable that 
no cases occur which may not be satisfactorily ex- 
plained by an ignorance or omission of F. 

A wide difference of practice, in this particular, 
among the Lyric and dramatic writers is not naturally 
a matter of wonder. 

Three modes of emendation have been proposed, by 
which the hiatus vitiosus (a short final vowel unelided) 
may be avoided ; elision, the theory of particles, and 
the theory of pronouns ; as to the first, vowels accented 
or not are subject to elision ; as to its application, it is 
the opinion of Hermann, Bekker, Spitzner,andThiersch, 
that, in consequence of the impossibility of making its 
effect a general remedy, elision should not be considered 
admissible into the text of Homer, even before a con- 
sonant, wherever the same effect can be produced by 
the substitution of other forms, as m for sl in the aor. 
opt. termination, efiev for kjuei*, &c. The diphthong at, 
in verbal terminations is removeable by elision, where 
frequently, as all other cases of elision, it may be 
allowed to stand, and be merged in synizesis. The 
elision of at in a nom. case b^u{m), II. X. 272, is an 
airat liprjjidvov, w T hich may be avoided in the same way, 
and is by Bentley altered to 6%u odvvr). The elision 
of a also occurs in a solitary instance vtst km$, II. or. 458, 
for which synizesis may likewise be substituted ; that 
of oi occurs in pot and toi. The removal of a is un- 
limited, unfrequent, however, in the verbal termination 
era, and never occurring in ava, either verb or substan- 
tive. The elision oft is equally indiscriminate; but t$z, 
the final ?c and the opt. tie are exceptions. The elision 
of i occurs in the dat plur. oc&t and ym : Thiersch, 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 24:5 

however, would prefer these forms, in all instances, to 
oig and yg ; in the dat. sing. 3rd decl. except after a 
vowel, and only in about six instances ; and in dat. plur. 
of the same, in o-$i, and in verbal terminations seldom ; 
in adverbs of place also, aXXodi, avroOi, &c, except 
when they come from substantives, on never suffers 
elision, or standing for ore. 

O is cut away from tovto, dvo, airb, and the verbal 
terminations aro, ero, ovro, oiaro ; but to, ttqo, the 
Ion. gen. olo, the pronouns l/uuo, <juo, and verbal term. 
ao and to, are exceptions. No instance occurs of the 
position of v in hiatus, it is consequently never elided ; 
the alleged example of the contrary o%v Ipvevafizvog, 
is properly o?u Fspvada/uLevog. With respect to the 
second, the theory of particles, it has been conjectured, 
that in the earliest commission to writing of the Ho- 
meric poems, certain conventional marks, intelligible 
only to the transcribers, and their cotemporary readers, 
supplied the place of the particles apa, ap' "pa, and ye, 
which marks, as these particles contained in themselves 
no distinct idea, but merely added emphasis to the ac- 
companying phrases, were, in subsequent transcrip- 
tions, lost. In the use of these, it is observable, that 
apa and ap lend an emphasis absolutely, and are there- 
fore joined to entire sentences; "pa is both absolutely 
and relatively emphatic, and accompanies sentences 
and single words; and the emphasis of ye, united only 
to separate terms, is relative and comparative, — com- 
pare the instances in the following lines : II. \. 266, 
xp. 125, w . 337; Od. a. 430, 469, 0. 186, tt. 447, &c. 
The insertion of p 1 will obviate hiatus in the following 
lines, where jmeyd appears in apaig, sc. II. 8. 506, e. 
343, t 421, p. 213, 317, <x. 160; Od. k. 323. It is re- 
marked on the adverbial use of this adjective with 
iax<u> that /usya is employed when its final syllabi 



^46 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

in apcriQ ; when in dicng, peyaW By applying the same 
system of emendation to those instances, where an 
amphibrach has been supposed to stand legitimately, 
viz. II. a. 193, K . 407, X. 411, o. 539, 0. 602; Od. S. 
90, 120, g. 365, 424, i,. 280, i. 233, v. 315, o. 109, and 
r. 367; in the first seven, together with the ninth, 
tenth, and eleventh of which instances, the line begins 
with Eujg 6, which reading has been legitimized both 
in the manner above stated, and by lengthening the 6 
in thesis, leaving the 'iojg a monosyllable as it is ; in 
these ten lines, then, by reading ewq 6 je, both these 
distortions may be dispensed with ; in the six other 
examples, the received readings are ewg tyw, ewq £7rr)X- 

OoV, E(jjg £7Tf?X#£, EU)Q ZVl, ELOQ 'tKOlTO, and E(OQ 'ikoio. 

where by reading eiog ap kyw, &c, the regularity of the 
prosody can be restored. On the same principle an 
anapaest is avoided in Od. o. 83, by reading avrojg ap\ 
Other similar defects may be remedied by substituting 
for the common readings priviv airo p enrwv, II. r. 35, 
curb p* Epay, and airo p* EpcrEiE, ([>. 233, and 329 ; 0iXe p' 
EKVpl, y. 172; ovtl pa, rj. 142 ; and ap' to^ov, o. 478. 
Corrections of the same nature may be effected in II. 
a. 156, j3. 264, £. 487, £. 62, 81, i. 403, 409, 440, k. 
557, X. 36, 444, p. 144; Od. i. 276, 392, k. 464, p. 
109, v. 213, &c. 

On the contrary, many metrical anomalies are pro- 
duced by the unjustifiable insertion of i'Ss, of which 
Mr. Knight questions the right to stand any where in 
Homer, it being always possible to replace it with ad- 
vantage by other conjunctions. 

The third theory, that of pronouns, suggests the 
removal of hiatus by reading eov, eoI, and ££, for 60, 67, 
e ; the instances of the operation of this theory, are of 
numerous and continual occurrence. With this sub- 
ject is connected the doctrine of the pavagogic v, this 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 247 

Thiersch considers to be superfluous, and, therefore, 
inadmissible in cases where it neither affects the pro- 
duction of a syllable, (where the syllable is already 
long,) nor obviates hiatus, as Wtjksv troXXag, kbv Zclko- 
tov ; to fill a hiatus, then, according to him, appears to 
be its most probable use. After syllables long by cae- 
sura, it is not considered by Wolf to be admissible ; 
there are, however, a few cases so situated, and in 
Begiq, several, where the rejection of the v would pro- 
duce a cacophony, as avzyuypnazv d>Yj°°C> H. y« 35 ; 
kvpzv §' IvpvuTra, a. 498. 

Of the paragogic y, Heyne suggests three uses : 
first, to avoid hiatus in the middle of a verse ; second, 
to produce a species of awa(pEia, being placed at the 
end of a line when the next begins with a vowel ; and 
third, to elongate a short syllable ending in £ or i. 

Crasis. — The instances of crasis in Homer, are aa 
into a ', oa into w ; oe and oo into ov ; at av into av, at 
c into a ; and ov s into ov. 

Apliceresls. — Wolf has excluded from Homer. 

Apocope. — The prepositions irapa, ava, Kara, vtto, 
ivi, ttqoti, and apa, are affected by apocope, (taking it 
for granted that the final vowels have not been added 
to the original forms ;) ava, before liquids and tt, ]3, 
<j>, loses the two last letters, as aWi^ai, a/m/M^at, &c. 
Kara before a consonant, changes r into that consonant, 
and before two consonants, loses it altogether, vtto is 
similarly affected in the form vfifiaXXeiv. 

Synizesis. — Genitives in aog always remain open ; 
datives in at remain open or not, as the metre re- 
quires, as do also genitives in vog\ datives in vi too, 
and genitives in tog, are not affected by synizesis. 
Those vowels from between which the digamma dis- 
appeared, always remain open, as wi^e, tinrriv, aiSpig, 
avT^Li), &c. The adverb tv, before two consonants, is 






24-S VERSIFICATION OF HOMEU. 

always divided, except irp, as ivirpvpvog, tW/orjcrroc ; 
occasionally before a mute and liquid, or a single con- 
sonant, but before a vowel synizesis always takes 
place. 

In compounding Greek words. — Nouns are joined 
with each other, with prepositions, with adverbs, and 
(which requires a fuller and more particular statement) 
with verbs. A word, with reference to composition, is 
called either airXovv, crvvdeTov, or irapaavvOeTov, as it is 
either simple, compound, or a derivative from a com- 
pound. 

Composition is of two kinds, crvvQeaig, and irapaOe- 
<rt£ : the former name is applicable where a change of 
letters occurs ; the latter is merely a juxta-position, as 
ava]3aXXw, KaracrraGig, &c. In compounds of a noun 
and verb, the signification is denoted by the accent, 
which, if on the verbal part, implies an active significa- 
tion ; if on the substantive part, passive : it is remark- 
able, that verbs, except in the Epic dialect, combine 
only with prepositions, (the exceptions are such com- 
pounds as evpvKpritov, Ivpvpiwv, &c.,) but may be joined 
to several. Prepositions are united with other words, 
without any further change than the collocation of 
letters may require ; but in all other compounds, the 
first part is changed; if a substantive, it generally as- 
sumes the form of the genitive. A composition of very 
frequent occurrence in Homer, is that of a in three sig- 
nifications, sc. for avev, ayav, and apa, for which there 
occurs an analogy in oirarpog, from opov. 



ACCENTUATION OF THE JEOLW DIALECT. 

In the i£olic, the oldest dialect, the imposition of 
the accent is naturally regulated by etymological prin- 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER, 249 

ciples, contained in the following three general rules, as 
laid down by Goettling, the first of which is, that in 
the Greek language, only one of the three final sylla- 
bles of a word is capable of receiving the irpoa^ia 
o%ua, acute accent ; the second, that the accent falls 
either on the syllable containing the principal idea 
of the whole word, or on that which is nearest to 
the syllable of the principal idea, as far as the num- 
ber of syllables in the word will admit ; and the 
third, that a syllable long by nature, is equivalent 
to two others, with respect to the time occupied in 
its pronunciation. The first of these laws is based 
on these two principles ; first, the words of primitive 
oriental languages are formed from monosyllabic roots ; 
and second, as these roots, by the addition of other 
modifying terms, become polysyllabic, the words thus 
formed would, if accented farther back than the ante- 
penultima, sound like two ; besides, an equilibrium 
must be maintained between the accented syllable, and 
unaccented ones which follow, which could not be the 
case if the accent went farther back than the ante- 
penultima, from which the obvious deduction is, that 
if the last syllable of a word be naturally long, the ac- 
cent cannot be placed even on the ante-penultima : it 
is the same principle which suggests the limiting clause 
in the second law ; for instance, if the radical syllable 
be the ante-penultima, and the adjunct which contains 
the principal idea precede it, then the accent must 
fall on the syllable nearest to that which contains the 
principal idea, &c, as in the word Trpoypappariov, the 
accent if unlimited by this clause, would fall on irpo ; 
it must be observed, however, that in verbal com- 
pounds, without any exception, the accent can never 
pass beyond the first or nearest compound, as -rrpoeg, 
not avuirpoir, which would thus take it on the second 

2k 



250 VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

compound ; the first adjunct, therefore, in the case of 
verbs, is to be always considered to be that containing 
the principal idea. 

There are some cases to be noticed, in which the 
final syllable, though apparently long, is, however, as 
to its effect on accentuation, short, namely, in the old 
Attic and Ionic declensions, which pronounce a long 
vowel, where the other dialects read a short one, as 
TroAewc, 7rr}\r}ia^eLo, for 7toAeo£, Trr}\r)'ia$ao ; here, w 
standing in a casual termination, (thence called the 
tttiotikov,) cannot be considered really long; but ap- 
proaching in more than an equal degree to a short 
quantity, which species of syllable is called by metri- 
cians an irrational time, Yj°ovoe a\oyog. This accounts 
for the accentuation of the Attic genitives Aayw, Asw, 
which, if the w were held to be really long, should, ac- 
cording to law, be perispomena; this law, however, 
does not extend to Doric genitives ; the substantive 
terminations 01 and m, are also to be considered short 
in accentuation, except in Doric Greek, in which these 
terminations are therefore perispomena. Long sylla- 
bles in enclitics are also liable to this correption, as 
well as the Boeotian r/ for at ; Aeyo/zrj for Xiyo/uai ; the 
production of a syllable by position has, in general, no 
effect on the accent, except produced by a final £ or \p ; 
nor does the quantity of the penultima exercise any 
influence on the accentuation ; the last syllable, on 
account of the interval between words, alone requiring 
a definite expression. 

According to these laws then, is the ^Eolic Greek 
accented. In this dialect, no word except the dissyllabic 
prepositions is accented on its final syllable. A re- 
markable analogy to this is found in the other dialects, 
that the oldest parts of speech, the verbs; the oldest 
nouns, the neuter ; and patronymics which belong to 



VERSIFICATION OF HOMER. 251 

the oldest nouns, are all accented according to these 
rules. Another analogy is observable in this, that the 
later dialects bear the same relation, with respect to 
accent, to the ^Eolic, as the modern languages of 
Europe, derived from Latin, bear thereto, and is further 
preserved in the oxyton accentuation of foreign words 
among the Greeks. On the subject of accents, Mr. 
Knight says, " respecting these, many and various dis- 
putes were maintained by the Alexandrine gramma- 
rians ; though invented by Aristophanes, they belong 
exclusively to the Attic dialect, such as it was, when, 
by becoming the court language of Macedon, it grew 
into universal use ; no use of, or allusion to it, is found 
in the old writers. This system of vocal modulation 
depends on the art of the musician, rather than the 
reciter or grammarian, and in all languages is so in- 
constant, that in none, has the same system been main- 
tained for two generations ; hence arose the different 
dogmata of these grammarians concerning the accen- 
tuation of several words, all which were, perhaps, 
equally irreconcileable to the usages of the ancient 
poets, even the Attic, of whose practice, most men 
living in the age of the Alexandrine or Byzantine 
schools must have been ignorant. The A, indeed, as 
a mark of contraction, may be useful to young stu- 
dents ; but the common doctrine of accents can serve 
no other end than to destroy metrical intonation ; its 
effects are evident in the pronunciation of the modern 
Greeks, who, without regard to quantity, would pro- 
nounce Qv\ojii]vy\v , guided by the accent; nor have we, 
in some particulars, a more generally correct ear : 
into some such error must any one fall, in an attempt 
to express the full power of the accent. Hermann, 
when he attributes so strong a producing power to the 
acute accent, evidently confounds it with the ictus, or, 



%52 VEBSIFICATION OF HOMER. 

what we moderns, in our languages, call the accent : 
he considers the grave accent merely negative, the ab- 
sence of the acute, and with strange inconsistency 
teaches, that the a is a compound of both. The old 
languages, particularly Greek, had more music in their 
pronunciation, than any of the modern, except, per- 
haps, the Tuscan dialect of the Italian ; the more remote 
too, their antiquity, the more harmonious their intona- 
tion, (Vide Cic. de Orat. 3, the habit of C. Gracchus.) 
The pronunciation of Latin was, it may be remarked, 
more rapid than that of Greek at any time." The 
tragic writers were not so scrupulous as the ancient 
poets, in assigning to particular words their proper 
signification ; for instance, the terms fyaayavov, tyx°£> 
and (5i\og, though distinct in meaning, are so con- 
founded by Sophocles, (Ajax, 658, 834,) as to be indis- 
criminately applied to the same idea. 



NOTES 



(1) The Parian, Arundel, or Oxonian Marbles, as they are 
variously called, having been found in Paros, where they had 
been engraved, were removed thence by a Jew, in the em- 
ployment of the celebrated antiquary Pieresc, and having been 
seized (including the Jew) by the Turks, and purchased from 
them by Mr. Petty, the agent of Thomas Howard, Earl of 
Arundel, and Duke of Norfolk, they were brought to England 

A. D. 1627. They contained the history and chronology of 
Athens during 1318 years, from the aera of Cecrops, 1582, 

B. C, to the Archonship of Diognetus, 264, B. C. ; but some 
of the stones having been removed to repair a chimney ! they 
at present extend only to the Archonship of Diotimus, 354, 
B. C. ; they were composed, according to Sir I. Newton's Chro- 
nology, about sixty years after the death of Alexander the 
Great. The dates are not given in Olympiads, but are merely 
counted back from the time then present. The history was 
continued by Timaeus Siculus, and after him, by Polybius. 

(2) Papyrus, a species of mulberry, which it closely re- 
sembles in appearance, and under the family of which (Morus) 
it is classed by Linnaeus, still furnishes the materials from 
which the Chinese and Japanese manufacture paper ; it also 
supplies some articles of clothing to the South Sea Islanders. 
The account of the illiberal jealousy of Ptolemy, which created 
a necessity for the manufacture of parchment (pergamena) in 
Pergamus, by which material it was eventually superseded, i?- 
too generally known to need repetition. 



254 NOTES. 

(3) The Cyprian verses have most probably acquired this 
name from the place of their first known recitation. In addition 
to the reason adduced by Herodotus, (vide supra, p. 47,) for 
doubting their authenticity, Mr. P. Knight grounds his dis- 
belief of their genuineness on the termination ot § e hi r^oty, of 
one of the opening lines, the last word being always a tri- 
syllable, TgopiYi, in Homer. 

(4) The word Nile signifies in the language of the Indians 
of the East, " black/' or " dark blue" its present name thus 
expressing the idea contained in the ancient " Melas." The 
circumstance asserted by travellers, that the Niger and Nile 
are identified by the Arabs, presents a curious analogy to the 
identity of the latter with the Greek name. 

(5) The story of the golden fleece, forms part of a legend 
(that of the Argonautic expedition,) to which, except in the word 
Hellespont, Homer makes no allusion. The name is commonly 
understood to allude to the figure-head of the vessel, having 
been the head of a ram. That under the allegorical name of the 

fleece, is presented the idea of a large amount of treasure is 
believed ; but the particular and proper allusion, conveyed in 
the term, is to the practice among the ancients, of intercept- 
ing the golden sands of their rivers, by laying fleeces of wool 
across the streams. 

(6) The unsettled state of political (national) rights, in the 
Heroic age, rendered the occupation and immediate fortifica- 
tion of a small and favourably circumstanced site, (the acropo- 
lis,) the first necessary step towards the establishment of a 
town. If the occupants maintained their position, the next 
measure was the extension of the state by the union and ac- 
cession of the inhabitants of the surrounding district, and these 
two distinct and combined establishments, received a name in 
the plural, as Athence, Thebce, Syracuse?, &c, while plural 
names in the masculine gender were generally borrowed from 
that of the inhabitants, as Argi, Delphi, &c. 

(7) The names hotfao-a and 'WSoris, applied to these copies, 
are considered by Mr. P. Knight to imply a refutation of Mr. 
Wolfs doctrine, which would rather require them to be called 



NOTES. 253 

(8) Homer appears to have been acquainted with but few 
external decorations in architecture, least of all with such as 
are the result of scientific arrangement, and symmetry of parts. 
When intending to express the most refined magnificence, he 
merely speaks of the polish of the stonework, and internal 
splendour, as in the description of the palace of Alcinous. 
The use of colossal human figures as columns, most probably 
took its rise in jEgypt. Those of the Memnonium at Thebes, 
and the Temple of Apis at Memphis, (erected about 600, 
B. C.,) are male figures, those in the latter edifice being about 
eighteen feet high. In Greece there were but two specimens 
of this species of architecture ; the Persian portico at Sparta 
was supported by male figures in Asiatic costume ; this was 
destroyed at an early date by an earthquake, common in 
that country. The others, those supporting the portico of the 
Pandroseum at Athens, are generally supposed to commemo- 
rate the captivity of the Caryatides, whose story is told by 
Vitruvius; but the application to them of the name xogoti, which 
properly belonged only to native Athenians, appears inconsis- 
tent with this belief; they may, perhaps, with more probability, 
be supposed to represent a procession of canephorce. The 
0oAo? mentioned by Homer, Od. %. 456, was supported by a 
single column in the centre : the nearest approach made by 
the ancients, before 01. 112, to the construction of a scientific 
arch, was that of horizontal courses of stones, projecting gra- 
dually till they met, like the Cyclopian arch in the old walls 
of Arpinum. 

(9) It has been observed that the story to which this pas- 
sage appears to relate, is not alluded to in the genuine parts 
of the Homeric poems. The favourite theory on this subject 
would consider the Cretan labyrinth an imitation of an ^Egyp- 
tian design of the same nature, which Herodotus distinctly 
asserts to have been the work of the twelve kings, i. e. about 
600 or 700 years after any possible date of the Cretan : this 
difficulty may be considerably diminished by observing, that 
long before the sera of Daedalus, statues and other works of 
art were called Da^dalean, (Pan*. Boeot. c. 3), that the name 



256 NOTES. 

dxQuXos may therefore signify merely " an artist ;" and that 
Homer does not speak of a labyrinth at all. 

(10) The most frequent designation of this territory by 
Homer, is Argos, (/Varo^orov, or 7r&Xctvyi>tov.) The question of 
the precise extent of Agamemnon's kingdom, has afforded 
material for much discussion. Heyne conjectures, that by it 
is intended the whole Peloponesus ; it has been also conjec- 
tured, that the term vtjcroi was employed to signify the " cities" 
of that district. 

(11) This sublime allegory of human arrogance, and re- 
tributive humiliation, has been variously interpreted and ac- 
counted for : the principal incident in the fable is, by some 
mythologists, supposed to have been suggested by the punish- 
ment of Lot's wife. By those who enumerate twelve children 
of Niobe, she is conjectured to be an allegory of the year, 
mourning over the irremeable flight of time. Pausanias de- 
scribes the mountain Sipylus, mentioned by Homer, as pre- 
senting, at a distance, the figure of a colossal female statue, in 
an attitude of sorrow, which resemblance, as it is approached, 
becomes less distinct, until it is, at last, altogether impercep- 
tible. 

(12) The Telchines, whose name seems to be derived fr. 
&i\ya, qu. hXyTvig, are spoken of by Sir I. Newton, to the fol- 
lowing effect ; that the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus 
brought into Greece the knowledge of many strange arts and 
sciences ; that the Curetes, a class or family of Phoenicians, 
particularly eminent in this particular, emigrated to different 
countries, where they received different names, being in Phry- 
gia called Corybantes ; in Crete, Idsei Dactyli ; in Rhodes, 
Telchines; in Samothrace, Cabiri; in Euboea, their settle- 
ment was called Calchis, from their skill in working copper, 
iron being then unknown ; in Lemnos they were believed to 
be the assistants of Vulcan ; by their geological knowledge, 
Cadmus discovered the gold mines in Pangseus, and those of 
copper at Thebes, where copper ore is still called Cadmeia. 
When they made armour of iron, they also invented a species 
of dance, accompanied with various noises, from which Solinus 
conceives the first idea of music to have been taken. 



NOTES. 257 

(13) This allegory denotes the inseparable union of elo- 
quence and harmony. So persuaded were the ancients of the 
necessity for the combination of harmonious intonation and 
eloquence of diction, that Aristotle and Cicero have even laid 
down laws, prescribing the particular quantities of the final 
syllables of a perfectly formed period. 

(14) The alphabet of Cadmus wanted £, y h 6. |, y, <p, x-> 4^ 
and a>, consisting thus of only fifteen letters ; the first addition 
to this number consisted of v, £, y, 6, introduced like the others 
from the East ; to these were added, at an early date, <p and 
% ; and the final accession was made by Simonides of Chios, 
during the Persian war, consisting of |, ~J/, and a. The Greek 
alphabet contained originally ? , Tcoppa, equivalent to Q, ; and 
Wj, sctmpi, equivalent to the Hebrew schin, which are now 
used as numerals. 

(15) This word " siluce" does not tell for Mr. Dawes' theory, 
as both the i and u are short, being the middle syllables of a 
choriambus. 



ERRATA. 

Page 132, line 19, for ivpvoTra Zsiig, read dov\iov r/fiap, 
— — 174, 16, for four, read from. 



THE END. 



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